The House of Cardboard

Gosh Maybe I Can Afford One of These Now

2010-03-11T18:05:00.001-05:00

http://www.thehistorybluff.com/?p=2931

The Greatest Common Card Produced in the Early 90's (In Defense of Steve Avery)

2009-11-10T12:29:00.005-05:00

When you think of the greatest cards ever produced, a few come immediately to mind: 1952 Topps Mantle, T-206 Honus Wagner, pretty much every card made by Topps from 1953-1956. But personally, I think that the greatest common card produced in during the baseball card explosion era of the early 90’s is this:

1993 Upper Deck #472 Team Stars Subset Strike Force

Is it any surprise that it comes from 1993 UD? Personally, I think this card is perfect. The greatest rotation ever on one card. Maddux with his icy glare, Smoltz and Glavine smiling happily. Avery looking happy to just be there. If there’s one thing that might throw someone off about this card it’s the inclusion of Steve Avery. Most would instantly glance at the card, see 3 sure-fire Hall of Fame players and then some other pitcher. Friends, I come to praise Steve Avery and not to destroy him and show that his inclusion on this card is warranted. First lets look at the raw stats:

1990 - 3-11, 5.64 ERA, 6.8 SO/9 in, 1.67 SO/BB

1991 - 18-8, 3.38 ERA, 5.9 SO/9 in, 2.11 SO/BB (6th in Cy Young voting, NLCS MVP)

1992 - 11-11, 3.20 ERA, 5.0 SO/9 in, 1.82 SO/BB

1993 - 18-6, 2.94 ERA, 5.0 SO/9, 2.91 SO/BB (Made All-Star Team)

I could keep listing stats, but that's what he had accomplished up to the point when the card produced except the 1993 stats as the season was just beginning or in progress when 1993 UD came out. Those came after the card came out. Now if you look at the stats of the Big 3, most of these numbers will seem paltry in some respects, but not in others. In 1991, Avery won 3 more games than Maddux and lost 3 less. His ERA was only 0.03 higher than Maddux in 1991 and had more strikeouts per 9 innings. Of course, the comparisons with Maddux pretty much end there as he went on to win the Cy Young Award from 1992-1995. Looking in comparison with Smoltz, in 1991 Avery's ERA was lower by 0.42 and he won 4 more games than Smoltz and lost 5 less. He also recorded 0.1 strikeouts more per 9 innings than Smoltz. In 1993, Avery's best year, he won 3 more games than Smoltz who had a much higher ERA than Avery at 3.62. Pitting Avery against Glavine, in 1991 Glavine won the Cy Young. He only won 2 more games than Avery and lost 11 compared to Avery's 8. Glavine's ERA was significantly lower at 2.55. Comparing Avery's 1993 year to Glavine's, Tommy won 4 more games to lead the Majors with 22 wins but lost the same number. His ERA, 3.20, was higher than Avery. In 1993, the only one of the four to not make the All-Star team was surprisingly Maddux, that year's eventual Cy Young winner.

I know that often comparing the stats I did doesn't work as there are great pitchers stuck on horrible teams or in a difficult division. However, since all of these pitchers were on the same team, all having to pitch to the same lineups and playing with the same offense and defense, it makes the comparison much easier. In looking at Avery's stats in comparison with the other incredible pitchers, I think that it makes perfect sense to include him on this card. He deserves to be there based on his performance and not just because he was the fourth man in an incredible rotation.

Night in the West End

2009-08-28T14:11:00.004-04:00

When I decided to move to Greenville, one thing I was excited about was having a minor league baseball team here in town. Sure, there was one when I was in Jacksonville, but getting to the stadium and going to games always seemed like a chore and not like a time to have fun and watch some ball. In Greenville, they in the past few years have revitalized the West End of downtown with shops, the Reedy River Falls park and Fluor Field at the West End. The Greenville Drive, not the best team name but what can you do, is the Single A affliate of the Boston Red Sox. Prior to the Drive being in Greenville, the Braves had their AA affiliate there for years and years. Due to a quibble between the Braves and the City of Greenville over building a new stadium, the Braves up and moved to Pearl, Mississippi a few years ago. Funny thing is that Greenville DID build a new stadium. And when they learned it was going to be linked with the Red Sox, they made it a minor league replica of Fenway Park with the inside dimensions being the same, yet still allowing for the outside architecture to blend in with the existing buildings.

I went to a game between the Drive and the Kannapolis Intimidators, the Single A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. The Intimidators are leading their division of the South Atlantic League right now with an in-division record of 40-18. The Drive tried to make a valiant comeback late in the game, but ended up losing 8-6. The players that really stood out to me were Oscar Tejada for the Drive, who made some great plays at second. He has great range and is lightning quick. However, with Pedroia in Boston he looks to be trade bait or would have to shift to a different position. For Kannapolis, it was reliever Kyle Bellamy. He's not quite a sidearmer, but he gets really, really low in his delivery, had some nasty pitches and ended up getting the save. Overall, it's a really incredible ballpark and a great place to see baseball played. I'll leave you with some pictures that I took at the game.

Mail Day

2009-08-15T00:46:00.004-04:00

I got a package from Joe over at The Average Joe yesterday and he filled in some needs from my list. Thanks Joe and I'll hopefully be able to fill in some of your needs and everyone should go over to his site and check if you have anything he needs.

Adam LaRoche is coming home

2009-07-31T16:05:00.002-04:00

The Braves entered into the Trade Deadline fray and got fan favorite Adam LaRoche back from the Red Sox in exchange for Casey Kotchman. Adam was kind of in limbo on the Sox with no where really to play and with Victor Martinez coming in, they needed more of a bench player. I think Kotchman will do well in that role and Adam would not have. I never really warmed up to Kotchman and I'll be glad to see Adam back in in a Braves' uni.

[h/t ESPN]

I'M DONE! And a contest!

2009-07-31T10:27:00.005-04:00

The last day of me taking the bar was Wednesday. Unfortunately, South Carolina doesn't give us our scores until October. Also, yes I have move from Florida to South Carolina for a myriad of reasons, but it also puts me closer to Atlanta and thus allowing me to attend Braves games. I haven't been to a game in 3 years so I'm looking forward to going to one soon. Also I'm in the process of unpacking everything and I'm having apartment issues so I'll be posting more, but they might be sparse here in the next few weeks.

Also, Ryan over at Trader Crack's is holding a great contest for a Razor Sports Icons cut signature. Head over there to check it out!

Hey Look! An Actual Card Related Post!

2009-07-12T20:09:00.004-04:00

Yes yes, I'm actually posting about something card related. While everyone else is caught up in the mania that is 2009 A&G, I am still stuck on 2008 A&G. Hopefully I'll get my hands on some 2009 once things settle down and once I actually have a job that pays me money. I found a blaster at Target today when I went to pick up a few things. I was quite surprised to see a blaster still available, but it is right outside of a ritzy part of the Charleston area so cards might be below the people that normally shop there. Anywho, I ended up getting 6 cards I needed for the set (Needs List will be adjusted accordingly) as well as this

The material feels like it's from a wind breaker or something of that ilk. The box says that this pull is 1:1,000. Hey I'll take it. Pretty neat pull from a blaster. I always love the oddball inserts.

RIP Steve McNair

2009-07-04T16:25:00.002-04:00

I never was a huge fan of Steve or anything, but he always seemed like he was a really nice guy and a pretty darn good football player. Such a sad way to go out.

(h/t News Channel 5)

Update on the Day Of Freedom

2009-07-04T16:13:00.003-04:00

Boys and girls, while this is a day to recognize the freedoms in the country, my freedom will come in 25 days when I finish taking the bar exam. I'm studying hard and trying to kick as much legal butt as possible. I have bought 3 packs of cards in this time span: One of Topps series 2 a jumbo of OPC and a pack of 09 Goudey. Nothing in those was of note other than a few base set Braves. But I wish you all a happy 4th and look forward to picking every thing back up here in August. Until then I leave you with this which should be watched every July 4:

Finals Are Next Week

2009-04-30T12:56:00.001-04:00

And I'm going to watch this before every one of them to get myself ready.

I really swear I'm still here

2009-04-19T23:39:00.002-04:00

Guys sorry about the lack of posting in the last few months or so. I'm graduating law school in the next few weeks as well as moving. And then I'll be studying for the bar all summer and then moving again. But I'll try to post a few things here and there, but they won't be too frequent. Thanks to you all who still visit the blog even though I don't write anything. Hopefully in August I'll be writing more frequently as things will have slowed down by then.

it's a Love/Hate Relationship

2009-02-14T00:13:00.004-05:00

With this weekend being Valentine's, I hope that everyone out there has a great one. I'm trying to stay away from the self loathing as much as possible. But, I think what I'm going to do, on the coattails of my last post is all this weekend post things that I love and things that I strongly dislike. I don't want to use the term hate as it has a lot of bad connotations. Well, unless I'm talking about certain people. So I think this is going to be Teams that I love and Teams that I strongly dislike.

Teams I love (or have a decent liking of):

Atlanta Braves

Atlanta Thrashers

Atlanta Falcons

Atlanta Hawks

Jacksonville Jaguars

Furman Paladins

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Florida Gators

Duke Blue Devils

Chattanooga Lookouts

Boston Red Sox

Chicago Cubs

Colorado Avalanche

Team Zissou

Teams I Strongly Dislike:

Georgia Bulldogs

Wofford Terriors

Appalachian State Mountaineers

Citadel Bulldogs

North Carolina Tar Heels

Florida State Seminoles

Ohio State University Buckeyes

Michiagan Wolverines

New York Mets

New York Yankees

Los Angeles Dodgers (Blame this one on the old NL West)

Los Angeles Lakers

Boston Celtics

James Madison University Dukes

Tampa Bay Bucs

Carolina Panthers

Dallas Cowboys

Philadelphia Phillies

Toronto Blue Jays

New Orleans Saints

Detroit Pistons

I have a lot more dislike than love apparently.

Things That I Am Not Particularly Fond Of

2009-02-13T00:11:00.002-05:00

Topps Sterling Cards without Autographs

The price point of Topps Triple Threads

People who get excited over pulling a serial numbered card of the player's jersey number

People who do the same thing to a 1/# or to a card that's the last one printed.

Lima Beans

People who don't care about base cards at all

Nickelback

2008 Sweet Spot

Grey or White game-used swatches

The Mets

Having box hits be scrubs

Horrible Collation

Pop Ups

Blog Bat-Around #4

2009-02-12T01:28:00.003-05:00

This is the 4th one of these, yet the first one I have participated in. I'd like to thank Dinged Corners for hosting this one. The topic is about the value of cards and what we should buy and hold for the future. First, if you're in the hobby strictly for profit, get out. I understand if you make a living that way owning a physical card shop or an e-bay store or something of that nature and your derive most of your income from cards. However, if you are just in it purely for investment and the return you hope you'll get, it's not worth it. Your ROI (return on investment) is much greater elsewhere. Secondly, there are the obvious choices: Vintage (1984 or before) cards of already established stars, autographed cards, cut signature cards, some game-used cards, prospects that pan out, etc. Here's the problem I see with these cards. Everyone will be or already is collecting them. If you look on YouTube, as painful as it might be to watch some of the box breaks, most everyone just goes after the hits and chunks the base cards to the side. While a decent amount of bloggers are set collectors, they (we) represent a small fraction of the whole of the collecting community most of which is made up of people going after the hits. You've got to figure out what people aren't collecting right now to determine what will be more valuable in the future. That's why I think the things to go after are complete sets of base cards that come from products that are driven by hits. In baseball, it'd be Sweet Spot, Prime Cuts, Topps Finest, Bowman Sterling, UD Ultimate, UD Premiere and other sets along that line.

I know that many of the high end to mid range sets often are all serial numbered or have tons of short prints. I think that's another reason why these sets are going to be worth having. They're in limited quantity and they're hard to put together. They're not like Heritage or Allen and Ginter which are set collector favorites. The price point as well as the difficulty of set completion drives set builders away from these products. Not to mention that these products are not focused at set builder as I previously stated. They are focused on the collectors looking for the hits. Imagine if you could get an entire base set of Topps Sterling. Or National Treasures football. Even something like 2007 Sweet Spot Classic. All are limited in their production and would be hard to complete, but having a full set of those cards would be very rare. And worth holding on to. It might be worthwhile to become a set builder for the future even if you're looking for the hits right now.

Men's Fitness ranked Dallas-Fort Worth the 14th Fattest City in America

2009-02-08T20:53:00.003-05:00

Get ready to move up the list because Tubby Jones is coming to your area!

reminds me of a candy bar....Chunky.

Man Walks Into A Restaurant

2009-02-08T18:58:00.007-05:00

Waitress: Good evening sir, what can I get you.

Man: I'd like a Filet Mignon please

Waitress: Very good sir. How would you like that cooked?

Man: Rare.

Waitress: Would you like that

super rare

or would you like that ultra rare?

Man: I.....I don't know. What's the difference?

Waitress: To tell you the truth, I don't even know.

Man: I'll take super rare. It looks less likely to make me choke.

WOKKA WOKKA!

I've opened 3 retail packs and one blaster of Topps Mayo Football

2009-02-05T21:35:00.006-05:00

For a total of 11 retail packs. Out of those packs I've pulled:

LaDainian Tomlinson Game-Worn Jersey

Chris Cooley Princeton Back Mini

And now for the biggie.

Wait for it.......

Wait for it......

Andre Caldwell Black Card Back Printing Plate Mini 1/1

I think I'm going to keep buying retail. Or quit while I'm ahead. I haven't decided.

Mail Day!!

2009-02-05T18:23:00.019-05:00

So I worked out a trade with Jamie, who just got back into collecting recently. He also proved that yes, people other than the people who have blogs read this thing. He helped me take out a big chunk of my '08 Heritage set, especially the Black Backs. So I have adjusted the Needs List accordingly. Here's what I got:

3 Base

17 Black Backs

2 News Flashbacks

1 Baseball Flashback

3 New Age Performers

1 Then and Now

2 Minis

1 Clint Sammons 2008 Topps Triple Threads #/50

I had no idea about the last card. He said he was sending me something for a Braves fan, but I never thought it'd be that good. Thanks Jamie and I'll get your cards out to you ASAP.

I Want, nay, NEED this Card

2009-02-05T10:45:00.004-05:00

I'm a big Tech fan and I'm glad to see them represented in the 20th Anniversary set.

(h/t Night Owl Cards)

Costas Joining MLB Network Exclusively

2009-02-04T14:52:00.004-05:00

LINK

Bob is leaving HBO and joining MLB Network exclusively on cable. It doesn't affect his NBC relations. I've watched only a little MLB Network so far, but I'm sure that will ramp up in the near future. I've always been a huge fan of Costas calling baseball games over anything else he does, even the Olympics. And to me, like Ken Burns, he is always going to be linked with Baseball. Thanks to MLB and their copyright restrictions, I can't find Costas' call of The Sandberg Game, but I'm sure you all remember it, right?

The Next Nostradamus

2009-02-04T14:45:00.003-05:00

LINK

I'm going to quit law school right now, 15 weeks from graduating, and tour the east coast predicting Topps gimmickry. I'm sure that'll be more lucrative than law right?

Where We're Going We Don't Need Roads

2009-01-20T02:17:00.008-05:00

Recently, I took the readers of this blog on an Excellent adventure back to 1997 with Tuff Stuff. Now I hate to abandon Bill and Ted's phone booth for time travel, but the way I see it, if you're going to go even further back in time, why not do it with some style? So that's why we're abandoning this

For this

That's right kids, the power circuits to the flux capacator are on, Mr. Fusion has been fed and we're going to get her up to 88 MPH so that way we can travel back all the way to 1970. I'll try not to create any alternate timelines while we're away. And why are we going back to 1970? For this!
No, not really. What good would this do us now? Not only are the statistics outdated, but going back to 1970 for it wouldn't make any sense. Unless Biff stole it and then went back to 1970...hmmm....no this is what we're really after.

The 1970 edition of Who's Who in Baseball. I found this gem when my Grandmother was cleaning out her basement and I asked her if I could have it and she said I could. I've decided to share it with the blogging world. There's a lot of really interesting things inside this book. But for this post, you're just getting the front and back cover. There's no color photos in this, but there are a ton of black and white photos. As for the cover, you have Tom Seaver NL Cy Young Award winner for '69, Denny McClain and Mike Cuellar who were Co-Winners of the AL Cy Young award and Harmon Killebrew and Willie McCovey who were the MVPs for the AL and NL respectively. On the back cover
The 1969 World Champion Mets. Yogi's on the front row, a young Nolan Ryan on the back row, Tom Seaver on row 3 and Tug McGraw on the 2nd. Just a very interesting picture compared to what some of today's team pictures look like. I'll be posting some more from this guide as long as I feel like it. If there's any players that anyone wants to see specifically from this guide, leave me a comment and I'll try and accomodate all requests.

Running Diary Review of Topps Heritage High Numbers Gum

2009-01-18T00:32:00.002-05:00

12:33 - Opened Gum Wrapper

12:33 - Put Gum in mouth, began chewing

12:34 - mmm...a little sweetness with a strange hint of citrus

12:36 - Flavor gone

12:37 - It's starting to get a little bitter

12:39 - ok really bitter

12:41 - spitting it out due to the taste

Overall, this gum is lacking. Not only does it lose its flavor, it starts tasting really really bad. And then leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Come on Topps, you can do better than this.

Grade: D+

Really Quick Plug For Those Doing TTM

2009-01-17T14:45:00.003-05:00

I've been doing Through The Mail (TTM) autographs since the early 90's and have seen lots of things change. One of the great things are the resources that are now available for those who do autos TTM. The best place I've found is SportsCollectors.ne t. I've had the link on my page since the blog started, but never gave a plug I don't think. Even if you don't join and pay the fee, there's still great resources for addresses, who signs, who doesn't and if they require a fee. Being able to catalogue your successes and failures and how long it takes them to come back is one of the greatest features of the site and that feature is free. So check them out.

Is Fatty Coming Home?

2009-01-15T12:48:00.002-05:00

After signing Guillermo Mota, the Dodgers are looking to cut Andruw Jones or trade him to some team. And he was seen at the Duke - Georgia Tech game last night wearing a Braves cap. Is he sending subliminal messages to Frank Wren?

Source

Mail Day!!

2009-01-15T00:58:00.010-05:00

I haven't bought any cards in awhile and with some Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket, I surfed over to Dave and Adam's Card World. I purchased one of their combos which was a box of 2007 SP Authentic, a box of 2007 SP Rookie Edition and a tin of 2007 Sweet Spot Classic. I also bought a box of 2008 Heritage High Numbers in order to start that set as I'm trying to do the whole 2008 Heritage set and am well on my way. I also got 2 packs of 2007 UD Elements as a free gift from D&A. Elements might be the most useless product I have ever opened a pack of. And that includes Topps Lazer. We'll start off with the 2007 SP Rookie Edition. There's good "rookies" in this set with Josh Hamilton, Tim Lincecum, Dice K and a few others. The rookie cards are done in various designs of Upper Deck SP of the past, much like Timeline, which I enjoy them using old designs. The box also had 2 rookie signatures per box. This is what I pulled:Kory Casto? Hmm...ok. Last year in 2008, Kory played in 66 games for the Nationals hitting .215 with 2 home runs and 16 RBI. He's not exactly lighting up the place. He's listed as OF on the card, yet the MLB site lists him as a 3B. So this means he's a pinch hitting utility player. Ok, so not a great card, but at least he's someone who's in MLB still. Next we have....Joe Smith, a pitcher from the Mets. Joe is now with the Cleveland Indians, but played last year with the Mets. He appeared in 82 games last year with a 6-3 records, 3.55 ERA and a .220 BAA. Joe appears to be a very good relief pitcher and should have a good career ahead of him. The only problem with this card is the ding at the top middle of it. It's hard to see on the scan, but it's there and it's really noticeable in person. Oh well. Let's move on to 2007 SP Authentic. The big thing with Authentic was the 2 By The Letter autographed patches that came in the box. Some people like them and some people hate them and I have never seen one really up close, so I thought this would be a good chance to get a few. Colation in this box is great as I'm only missing 4 cards out of the base set of 100 and I'll put these up on my need list ASAP. Now on to my hits

A rookie signature of Brad Salmon 20/75. Brad, a pitcher, for some reason is holding a bat on the card. Salmon now plays for the White Sox and didn't play in MLB in 2008. In 2007, he played in 26 games for the Reds with an 0-1 record and a 4.13 ERA. I got one more of these and it's much better than this one.Alex Gordon 23/25. Alex had a decent year last year with KC hitting .260 in 493 ABs with 16 HRs and 59 RBIs. Alex turns 25 next month so this should be the year that he starts his upswing of talent as he's been a highly regarded prospect for a long time. Now having some of these By The Letter cards, I really like them. I think they are well done. The Alex Gordon with the gold signature looks very classy and I like the shadow work on the "O" in Salmon's card. I know there are a few who are not fond of these, but I have no problem whatsoever with them. Now the manufactured letters with stickers on them or no auto, I'm not a fan of those, but these are just fine.

I'm not going to post anything about the Hertiage High Series as I got that just for the base cards. My hit of the box was an Aramis Ramirez plain grey game-worn jersey swatch. Nothing to get excited over. I didn't get a buy back and my refractors and chrome arn't anything to write home about. However, I'm saving the best for last. This tin of Sweet Spot is the first one pack product that I've bought. The tin was a Babe Ruth tin, so I was hoping for something big. I got 2 base cards #/575 of Jose Canseco and Judy Johnson. My hits were as follows.
An unnumbered swatch of Donnie Baseball. For some reason, I find Mattingly as one Yankee that I don't hate. I don't know why. Next:
A Sweet Spot Classic Sig of Dave Winfield 43/75. Hey a Hall of Famer! I could have done a lot worse. I also would have liked to have a sig that wasn't faded all to hell. I knew when I saw Mario's post that these things do fade, but man, seeing it in person is a different thing. It's really worse that the scan shows. I think it was a black ink sig and there's all kids of bleeding of the pen. And I know exactly why. The "balls" that the players are signing are basically plastic. This is the first time I've been able to feel one of the cheaper materials and the only cow this ball came from is one that's made by Mattel. UD needs to use better quality materials in order to make these sigs last. This is just ridiculous. I bet you're all wondering why I showed the Sweet Spot before the other swatch card. This is why:
Harold Baines patch 24/55. It's a really great 2 color patch. If I was Captain Ebay, it'd be a 3 color patch because there's literally 2 threads of white in the bottom left corner, but it's a 2 color. I really like this patch. Great stiching and great Sox colors. Overall, I think I did pretty well with these boxes and I really had fun busting them. If I knew that all the Sweet Spots I got wouldn't be faded, I might buy some more Sweet Spot Classic, but the fading might keep me away. But all in all, money well spent.

Updated Needs List

2009-01-12T02:36:00.004-05:00

I've updated my needs list (which you can check out by the link to the right of this post) to include 2008 Goudey and the Baseball Icons insert set for 2008 A&G. If you'd like to set up a trade, let me know with an e-mail (which can also be done to the right). I've got a lot of random stuff, especially from 2006-2008. I'm not going to be as busy as I was last semester, so I will respond to e-mails quicker and have set up an e-mail account specifically for the website so I'll have all my trades and blog filtered into one mailbox. So if you e-mailed me about a trade sometime last year between, oh, September and December and it didn't patch out or I didn't respond, I'm sorry and please e-mail me back. Thanks.

Turning Japanese, I'm Turning Japanese, I Really Think So

2009-01-10T16:42:00.003-05:00

The Braves FINALLY made a move today. Well other than that Vazquez trade and signing a backup catcher. The AJC is reporting they've come to terms with Kenshin Kawakami and will be announced on Monday or Tuesday. I've tried to find if he had any US cards from maybe the Olympics or WBC, but nothing has shown up. The only one that's close is this US produced 2000 Upper Deck Japanese Ovation. But I'm sure we'll be seeing plenty of his cards this year. Let's hope he pans out.

Tuff Stuff's Excellent Adventure Pt. 5

2009-01-10T15:12:00.004-05:00

What exactly where to new products in July 1997? Well take a look and see the prices. I think my favorite prices are those of the Pacific cards. Would any of those cards come close to those prices today? Even in the book? What are y'alls favorite listings on these two pages?

Extreme Measures are Being Taken

2009-01-10T02:53:00.003-05:00

Since the location is Augusta, Georgia, I know it's not dayf. And plus I think his heart and soul, as well as mine, would sell for more than $78.77. Or at least I'd hope so. Check it out here.

So Long Smoltzie

2009-01-08T14:26:00.001-05:00

Here's my Frank Wren Impression

Tuff Stuff's Excellent Adventure Pt. 4

2009-01-07T16:59:00.003-05:00

Finally, something useful in a price guide! A card grading guide so you can tell what condition your card is in. Good use of 1971 Topps too as the black borders make for hard mint cards. I think some people on e-Bay might need to read this.

Tuff Stuff's Excellent Adventure Pt. 3

2009-01-06T22:41:00.003-05:00

Oh to have a day when both Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones are extremely hot in the hobby....oh wait, that day was in 1997. Also making an appearance in the top 10 hot players, Grant Hill and No-MAH. Oh how times have changed. And check out the Card of the Month. To be back in 1997, when die cuts were all the rage.

Tuff Stuff's Excellent Adventure Pt. 2

2009-01-06T00:45:00.003-05:00

Here I have an ad. A quite notorious ad. This is for Stan's Sports Memorabilia which is more than likely known to most people as one of the people/businesses who was caught up in the autograph forging business and part of a huge ring that was stopped by the FBI in Operation Bullpen. And if you haven't read the book about Operation Bullpen, you need to track down a copy an read it for yourself. It's quite astounding what these guys did. So take a look at this two page ad and click on the pictures to make them bigger and look at some of the prices. It's astounding what your money could have got you back in 1997, even if it was fake.

Tuff Stuff's Excellent Adventure Pt. 1

2009-01-05T14:27:00.003-05:00

First thing I'm going to show you is an ad from 1997."OH MY GOSH WHAT COULD THAT MEAN??!?!?!! THIS AD IS BUILDING MY ANTICIPATION LIKE NONE OTHER!""1997 BOWMAN!!!"

My favorite thing about this ad is the stated odds and them basically telling you that you have no chance of getting that Jeter auto, in any of its forms. I also like that they're pushing Andruw Jones as one of the star autographs in this. Of course, this would have been right after his coming out party in the 1996 World Series and everyone was big on him. Now Andruw is just big.

Home Again, Home Again

2009-01-05T01:25:00.006-05:00

Well I'm back from the 'Rents house and in Florida again. However I managed to sneak a few things out of the house that I'm going to get a lot of posts out of. I'll show you the first now.

Aww Snap! A July 1997 issue of Tuff Stuff. Thank goodness I'm a pack rat. I think I have the complete run of Tuff Stuff from '96 to '98 and if it's not complete, it's really really close. Jordan is just schooling Antwan "Baby Fat" Walker in this picture. I'm going to be scanning in some articles, ads and other stuff just to see exactly what was hot and new in the late 90's. I've got a few pages marked and I'll tell you right now, it's really interesting. Things have changed a lot in 12 or so years.

Da na da na da na da na na...BATMAN!!!!!

2009-01-02T00:27:00.005-05:00

There are 3 autographed bats in my collection. I've already shown you one of them in this post and now I'm going to show you the other 2.

This is an interesting bat as it's signed by Mark Lemke. The Lemmer wasn't known for his hitting prowess as much as he was known for his defense so it would make more sense to have an autographed glove from him, but I'm not going to complain about having this bat. Next up:

Here's a bat signed by Mr. Halle Berry, David Justice. Unlike Lemke, Justice was known for his hitting, having a .500 career slugging percentage, especially his home run in 1995 to give the Braves the World Series title. Justice waned in his abilities after he left the Braves, but he would win the World Series again with the Yankees in 2000. Fun Fact: He collected 23 of 24 1st place votes to win the 1990 NL Rookie of the Year. The other 1st place vote went to Delino DeShields.

Potentially Last Post of the Year

2008-12-31T00:18:00.006-05:00

Tonight I'm going to show 2 of my more unusual items that I have.

While this looks like a normal beaten up MLB ball, it's not. It's a batting practice ball that I caught on September 30, 2003 prior to NLDS Game 1 pitting the Braves against the Cubs. I was sitting right beyond the outfield wall at Turner Field watching BP when Andruw Jones hits a ball and it bounces on the warning path and over the wall. I jump out of my seat and nab the ball one handed. I was lavished with cheers by the other people. This remains the only ball I've caught at a MLB game and even though it's a BP ball, I'm still real proud of it. Since this is a baseball card blog, I mightas well show some baseball cards.

This is an uncut sheet of the 1987 Commemorative Rookies Set that was inserted only into the 1987 Topps Jumbo packs. While the big name on the sheet is Mark McGwire, there's a few other recognizable names such as Mike Greenwell, Terry Steinbach and Billy Ripken. I personally just think it's neat to have a full uncut sheet of a set of cards. Someday hopefully I'll get this framed.

More Stuff (All Braves Edition)

2008-12-28T23:32:00.008-05:00

Continuing on with the stuff that I have around my Parent's house, we'll do an All Braves Edition. There'll be a lot more Braves stuff as that's what I have the most of. First up, we have a ball signed by koo-koo head himself Mark Wohlers.

This might have been another Christmas present, but I can't remember. This is on a 1995 World Series ball as he recorded the last out to give the Braves their WS Title. Next we have his battery partner, also on a 1995 World Series ball, Javy Lopez.

Here, you can actually see the World Series logo that's on the ball. This is the only World Series ball I have that's not signed on the sweet spot. I believe that I got this at K-Mart in one of those Mystery Ball packs and came out quite well. Next are a couple of limited edition signed rookie cards that I have. First up...

Here's a signed 1988 Donruss of Tom Glavine limited to 1988 copies. I don't remember where I got it all I know is that I have it. And to end this post, as all good posts should end...With Chipper Jones of course. A 1991 Topps signed card. This one is limited to 1991 copies. You can never have enough Chipper.

Some presents of Christmas past.

2008-12-28T01:07:00.009-05:00

I'm at my parent's house, far away from my scanner, so I'm taking this time to show a few things that I couldn't show you by scanning. All of these I've had for years and years.

First up:

Tony Gwynn autographed ball with a .394/94 inscription. This wasn't a Christmas present, but I actually got this ball at K-Mart. Yes K-Mart sold autographed baseballs at one point. It was in a pack of 3 or 4 auto balls. I got the Gwynn, Javy Lopez, Jose Oliva (RIP) and I want to say one more. Or maybe not. Anyway, I love the ball because it's a classy classy auto and a great inscription. Next we have

The freshly retired Greg Maddux. I got the card through the mail I want to say in 1997 or somewhere around in there. The ball is a 1995 World Series ball that I got for Christmas in either 1995 or 1996. This is one of my favorite pieces I own. Let's keep on keepin' on.
This is a Griffey Junior ball from around '92 - '94. I love Junior's looping signature. This was another Christmas present.
I think I got this Nolan Ryan ball the same Christmas that I got the Junior ball. Another great readable signature of one of the game's greats. And now, for one of my favorite things I own:

Oh Hammerin' Hank. I love this ball. It's a William White NL ball with a great sig from Hank. It looks like he had to go back over the "o" in Aaron, but still, one of the greatest pieces from one of the greatest of all time. I'll be posting some more as the week goes on.

Just like Ah-nold I'm BACK!

2008-12-20T02:57:00.005-05:00

Exams are over, I worked out my scanner issues, everything is great. So here's something I've been wanting to share for awhile. I go to my parent's house for Thanksgiving and I occasionally get pieces of mail there still so it's not unusual to have some long lost TTM auto come back and surprise me when I go back. This time I got a big surprise. There was my SASE, but the postmark was from 2007 and somewhere in Florida, I don't exactly remember where. I guessed that this just got lost in my Dad's closet and he found it cleaning. I figured that it was probably some Devil Ray or Marlin that I sent to, but then got to thinking, I wasn't using my parent's address in 2007 so it had to be from 2005. I knew at that point that it had to be something exciting for it to take a year and a half to two years to get to me. So I open it up and see a form letter and this:

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?????????

CHIPPPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Needless to say I was quite excited. From the form letter, it seems that Chipper takes all the mail he gets and sends any items back, which he did with me, along with a signed 5X7 photo that he signs while he's on the road. In the gloom and doom of this Braves off season, just remember, we still have Chipper and he's a good guy. And I think that counts for something.

Just because I'm losing, doesn't mean that I'm lost

2008-12-09T22:53:00.002-05:00

Yes I used another Coldplay quote. This is one of those posts that I do every so often just to let you know I'm here and yes I will be blogging. I got a new computer so I haven't worked out the driver issues with my scanner and I'm in the middle of finals. But yes I am here and yes I still write this blog.

I'm around here somewhere

2008-11-06T23:49:00.001-05:00

Yes, I'm still around. Last week was a hectic week and my laptop crashed the week before, so I've been having some issues. I do have a post coming sooner or later about a GREAT surprise I got when I went to my parent's house last weekend.

So Who's Going To Call The Games Now?

2008-10-21T15:37:00.003-04:00

Pete Van Wieren announced his retirement from the Braves broadcast booth today. He's been with the Braves for 33 years and was a huge part of my years living in Georgia and even in South Carolina when I could see the Braves still on TBS. I personally don't think that it's just coincidence that it happened in the same year that Skip Caray died. They had been partners for so long that it was common for them to finish each others sentences. "The Professor" has spent the last year calling games on the radio.

It's interesting to see that in the past few years that while the team has changed, the whole organization around the team has changed as well. The old familiar broadcasters are gone as is the GM. The pitching has dwindled, but the bullpen has been horrible as usual. I'm hoping they trade for Jake Peavey and get another power hitter. I'm looking forward to seeing Jordan Schaefer play as the kid can stroke and has put his HGH woes behind him. The Braves also need to find a consistent closer and not have an entire bullpen vying for the spot. They also need to figure out fairly quickly if Smoltz and Glavine can/are going to come back next year so they don't spend the first half of spring training trying to piecemeal together a pitching staff if they're not. There's so many questions for next season. Hopefully they can be answered. The Braves haven't seen the post season since 2005 and haven't been to the World Series since 1999 (Eff You Jim Leyritz). It'd be nice to see October next year.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Jim Leyritz home run was in 1996, not 1999. 1999 did feature another brutal moment when Jim Grey interviewed Pete Rose.

Mail Day!

2008-10-21T00:27:00.007-04:00

I got a HUUUUGE package of cards from JV over at Treasure Never Buried which put a sizable dent in my sets. I've updated my list accordingly and I've got at least one more trade coming in and once that one gets here, I'll update my list again. Thanks for the trade JV.

2008 Tampa Bay Rays = 1991 Atlanta Braves

2008-10-19T23:37:00.006-04:00

Congrats guys. Let's see if you can win the World Series, unlike the 1991 Braves. I'd also like to see a nice string of championships come your way.

A Response to Gellman over at SCU

2008-10-08T11:48:00.008-04:00

I started to write this as a comment to his post, but it got a little long and I thought that it was worthy of it's own post on my blog. Concerning Gellman's comment about the negativity, or perceived negativity on his blog as well as others, including this one. I think that's because most of us who blog, at least regularly, remember when the hobby was "pure" or however we choose to view it, using your term of choice. And a lot of us left the hobby for some amount of time or didn't do any more than pick up a retail pack or blaster every now and then at Wal-Mart or Target. And when we came back with an enthusiasm to collect for whatever reason and go to a hobby shop, if we can find one, for the first time in 5-8 years and are inundated with product that costs hundreds of dollars per pack, gimmick cards, terms like "mojo" and how quickly cards are flipped for cash or other cards and the arrogance, sense of entitlement and flippant attitude of a lot of younger collectors (as well as older ones) it can be kind of a shock.

Now to use SCU terms, I understand there's a First World and a Second World and get the purpose behind both. I'm mostly a First World collector, but I dabble a bit in the Second World. But there's so much that's wrong with both Worlds, that there's enough negativity to go around. We've gone from having enough cases of cards in the early 90's to have a case for every person in China to now trying to make the most limited, most expensive product ever available. And I think we're heading towards a happy medium right now. Like Gellman said, I think there is a conscious effort on the part of the manufacturers, or at least Upper Deck, to make their product better and make the collectors happy. And I think what most collectors are looking for are being able to get their money out of the product they buy. Of course this applies a lot more to Second World Collectors than First World, but both are looking to get value, be it financial, emotional, sentimental, whatever, from their cards. And I think we're heading towards that. Some of that credit has to go to the Bloggers, both big and small. While we as a blogging community may not be able to sit and dictate where product should go, we have seen that the higher ups in the industry do take notice, read the blogs (maybe even this one!) and even comment on them or do an interview or two. Where the blogs make the biggest difference is in transparency. If there were no blogs and all we saw were Beckett's video breaks, the Beckett message board, Topps Rip Parties and all the other propaganda being spewed by the conglomerates then I think all you would have is a bunch of disappointed sheep. But the community allows us to agree, differ and discuss all of the aspects of the hobby and if need be, take someone to task for it. If the major players in the hobby are all in collusion, then there needs to be a neutral voice out there, speaking what everyone is thinking and until the invention of the Internet, this wasn't possible or if it was, it was available to a very limited group of people. Now with mass media, everyone can have a voice. Even if some are less prolific than others, it still allows collectors of all types to be heard by another collector at least which will hopefully will lead to discussion of the hobby in whatever aspect is being touched upon. Unfortunately, that does often lend itself to more discussion about the negative than the positive.

There is a lot of negativity in and about collecting on the blogs these days, but there is some good as well. The problem is that the negativity is more fun to talk about, it's more newsworthy and gets more people riled up. When there's a good story about one of the blogger's kids getting a pack of cards and being completely content with that David Eckstein base card or bloggers helping out other bloggers unsolicited, it goes unnoticed. Yes, there's a lot wrong with the hobby, but there's a lot of good being done and it often gets overshadowed because it's a lot more fun to berate Topps for a gimmick base card that no one will ever pull than to find the positive in the simplicity that a pack of cards can bring.

Playing Catch Up

2008-10-07T21:37:00.004-04:00

I've had a couple packages come in over the past few weeks. The first was a trade from Bailey over at The Nennth Inning. I sent him some 2008 A&Gs and a couple Tim Lincecum cards for some 08 A&Gs I needed as well as a few Braves card with the linchpin of the deal being this beauty.

I also got the Falcons cards in from dayf that I won in a contest. My favorite of the bunch would be this one of Keith Brooking.

I can only imagine the off-color jokes that were being made during this shoot.

One of My Packs of 08 Masterpieces in My Blaster Only Had 2 Cards in it

2008-10-07T21:12:00.002-04:00

This one

And this one
Won't UD ever get ANYTHING right?

My First Card From an Overpriced High-End Product

2008-09-20T14:57:00.003-04:00

I got this from one of the group breaks over at Sports Cards Uncensored. My first impression is that the card is really thick, but isn't as heavy as I thought it would be. The design is very bland. I wouldn't buy a whole box of the product unless I was guaranteed a good hit in every box. So I'm glad to have the card, but I don't think I'll be buying a box of this anytime in the near future.

International Talk Like A Pirate Day A&G BlastARRRRRRRRRR!

2008-09-19T23:55:00.010-04:00

Avast! ARRRRRR! Today be the day where all landlubbers get their sea legs, drink some grog and talk like pirates! It also be the day where Me pull out my Corsair keyboard!

Me was doin' some plunderin' today at the shanty and pillaged away from those scurvy dogs a blastARRRRRR of Allen and GintARRRRRRR! All me hearties await to see what pirate themed treasure was found!

First me found some cARRRRRRRds featurin' Team ARRRRRRRRange

Then me found a gem in this Pirate, Ian Snell, and it be black boardARRRRRRRRed

Me also ended up plunderin' a relic of that scalleywag David Wright
ARRRRRR!!!! Me wish me could make him walk the plank! But this pirate found even greater treasure in findin' the greatest Pirate of them all
HONUS WAGNARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

ARRR!!! All out of the same blastARRRRRRRRR! That's some fine booty there mateys. Fine booty indeed!

Updated

2008-09-19T16:16:00.000-04:00

I updated my needs list to include my 2008 A&G needs.

Fantasy Woes

2008-09-18T15:50:00.003-04:00

Not only did Chris Harris beat me handily last week in baseball, but thanks to a score adjustment today in my football fantasy league, I now have a tie for last week instead of a win.

Hometown Hero

2008-09-11T22:17:00.005-04:00

Back in elementary school in my hometown of Dalton, Ga., we would take field trips to the Crown Garden and Archives which held the historical records and other items of Dalton and for much of Whitfield County. On those trips they would often tell stories of Harry "Suitcase" Simpson. Suitcase was a Negro Leaguer who often has the misconception of getting his nickname from being traded a lot, but it really came from the press in 1951 in Cleveland thinking he looked like some cartoon character of the same name. He also was nicknamed "Goody" for being a nice guy and helping out people. Perhaps we should bestow that moniker upon Tony Romo now. But Harry is somewhat of a legend back in Dalton. Not only is he important enough to teach to children still, but he has his own stretch of road named after him. I've always wanted some of Harry's cards and until e-Bay, never really had the chance as most of the stores didn't and don't have a real plethora of '50s and '60s cards. So I made a purchase and it came in the other day.
I'm now the proud owner of a 1952 Bowman of Mr. Simpson. This is now the oldest card in my collection and it might be my favorite. Yeah, it's graded, but there's certain battles you decide to fight. I've never actually examined a real '52 Bowman up close and man are they stellar. I'm going to try and get more of Harry's cards if possible and he doesn't have a long checklist so it's easily doable. So here's to Harry Simpson, the pride of Dalton, Ga.

A Battle For the Ages

2008-09-09T23:55:00.003-04:00

In the Baseball Card Blogger fantasy baseball league this week, which pretty much died before John Smoltz's arm, I'm facing Chris Harris of Stale Gum fame in the Semi-Finals of the playoffs. Right now, he's up 5-2 but that could change after tonight. I'll keep everyone informed on how this turns out. If I can't beat him in blogging, maybe I can beat him in a fake baseball league.

2 Years Ago Today

2008-09-02T00:27:00.003-04:00

Nomar did something significant enough to be included in an above average set produced by Upper Deck in 2008.

Below The Mendoza Line

2008-08-31T14:08:00.005-04:00

Editor's Note: I had planned on writing this article, but after seeing the pull that Mario got, it made it that much imperative, at least in my mind, that I write it.

Way back when in 1990, I started collecting sports cards. Now, 18 years later after starting and stopping a few times, I'm still collecting sports cards. However, I have a problem. I've opened thousands of packs, hundreds of boxes. I've bought odd lots and trades away cards for other cards and money so I could actually eat dinner one night, but that's a story for another time. Sheer quantity is not something that I'm lacking in. However, one thing that I am lacking in is quality hits. One would think that after opening pack upon pack, especially in this day and age with the proliferation of inserts, I would have a few quality hits under my belt. Now, you ask, what exactly am I defining as a quality hit. I'm saying that a quality hit is an insert, generally a relic, autograph or a card that is produced in small quantity, of a star player, a player I like or a player from the Braves. In all of my years of collecting, I have in my possession just 4 quality hits in 18 years. Sure, I have a lot of other hits and I do enjoy getting those, but to have the hits be of someone in the upper echelon, be it in your own mind or in the mind of the public at large, just takes it over the top. I will now tell you of my 4 quality hits:

1) 2002 Leaf Gold Clubhouse Signatures Javier Vazquez #ed/25

I got this out of a K-Mart retail pack back in 2002. This remains the best hit I have ever gotten.

2) 2007 Allen and Ginter Luis Castillo Mini Bazooka Back #ed/25

Again, this came out of a blaster and is a quality hit due to my love of A&G and it being low numbered.

3) 2008 Topper Heritage Brooks Robinson Flashback Relic

Again, from a blaster and from one of my favorite old timers

4) 2008 UD Spectrum Green Chipper Jones #ed/199

Another blaster pull and a semi-low number of these were produced, but it is my favorite player.

Oh sure, I have many other pulls and a few of them come close to being quality pulls (ie. 2008 GU UD Derek Jeter jersey, but it just doesn't excite me. If it had a pinstripe, maybe). Most of everything I have are mid to low level players who either don't do anything for me, or haven't done anything in the major leagues. I don't know if it's just my bad luck or what, but I've never pulled an autograph or relic of a Braves player or of a player I like. I've also never pulled any 1/1 or anything numbered less than 25. No printing plates for me either. I truly do enjoy collecting cards and collecting sets, but the feeling when you pull a card of your favorite player or someone from your favorite team that is "rare", you really can't beat that feeling. I'm sure all the Joe Collectors are reading this and thinking I should go buy a box of Triple Threads or Sterling or something like that. Quite frankly, I don't have that kind of money to spend on less that 15 cards and I'm not guaranteed a hit of an exciting player. So I'll continue to buy boxes and try and build my sets, while still searching for that elusive biggest hit ever. I'm assuming that sooner or later the law of averages will eventually catch up to me and I'll pull an Eddie Matthews, Warren Spahn, and Hank Aaron triple cut signature from something one of these days.

The Best Thing About The Olympics on NBC

2008-08-16T15:42:00.004-04:00

Is the return of "Roundball Rock" to broadcast airwaves. "Roundball Rock" was written by none other than John Tesh and is more commonly known as the NBA on NBC theme. Once the NBA moved to ABC, they didn't take the theme with them. This was a bad move as the theme defines NBA on broadcast television. Of course the best thing about the theme was when Conan O'Brien would put the theme to different scenes of "ER" and "It's A Wonderful Life". Of course, YouTube has deleted all of those because of copyright stuff. However I can inflict the theme upon everyone and have it stuck in your head all day long.

Packapalooza Extra!

2008-08-16T00:18:00.007-04:00

Despite being warned about this product, I bought a few packs of Donruss Americana II 2 weeks ago. I'm not going to put you through cards of random 7th Heaven cast members or Danielle Rousseau from Lost, but I will give you what were my good pulls from the packs. And there were actually some good pulls.

Glenn Ford Used Material #'d/100
The back of the card says he had the fastest draw in Hollywood at 0.4 seconds. Of course, most of us know him better as Pa Kent in the original Superman movie. This is either a proof or one of the Silver Screen Swatches as it's numbered out of 100.

Todd Bridges Proof #'d/500I'm talkin' bout this proof card, Willis!

Elijah Wood Proof #'d/500
He looks like he's staring into your soul with 2 Eyes of Sauron.

Willie MaysThis card is here to remind you that Willie Mays was, and always will be, a pimp.

Random Friday Packapalooza, The Finale

2008-08-15T23:48:00.000-04:00

After all this hooplah all day long, what can I possibly give you that will top all the packs opened today? What is it? Is it Triple Threads? No, that'd be too Joe Collector of me. Could it be Bowman Originals or Topps Finest? Nope, not that either. Friends, what I've got here is something that I could hardly contain myself when I saw that the hobby store had it. I got tingles when I saw that it was a fresh box and I picked the first packs out of it. 2 packs of this cost me less than 2 packs of 2008 Allen and Ginter Hobby would have cost me. Enough suspense. I plunked down cold hard cash for 2 packs of this:

That's right kids, 1982 Donruss. These packs are as old as I am. And it makes me feel warm when I open up really old packs. And the fact that these were box fresh and unsearched makes it that much better. Alright, lets see what we have

Pack #1
Puzzle Piece of Babe's ear
202 Tom Brookens
190 Whitey Herzog
7 Dwight Evans Diamond KingsDick Perez spent most of his time painting the mustache.

167 Joe Niekro
155 Rick Peters
583 Rick Leach
572 John Denny
560 Julio Valdez
57 Hector Cruz
46 Jack ClarkLove the brows.

34 George BrettIn the typical George Brett fielding pose.

212 Jamie Quirk
201 Steve Yeager
189 Sparky LyleAnother great mustache in this pack.

178 Jackson Todd

Pack #2
Puzzle Piece Babe's chin(s) and Donruss logo
148 Tom SeaverTom looking Terrific as always

136 Pedro Guerrero
125 Allen Ripley
113 Rickey HendersonRickey looks like Rickey is wondering why Rickey took a strike looking on Rickey's 3rd year card.

102 Ralph Engle
90 Bobby Grich
467 Johnny Grubb
456 Reggie ClevelandThe namesake of the Bill Simmons created Reggie Cleveland All-Stars.
444 John Harris
432 Barry Bonnell
421 Dave Concepcion
409 Tommy JohnShould be in the Hall of the Fame due to his surgical contributions to MLB.

147 Dick Davis
135 Lou PinellaSweet Lou in his slimmer days

124 Tony Pena

A great set of two packs. Hall of Famers, fan favorites, coaches and just goofy looking 80's styles. I really enjoyed opening these old packs and they were surprisingly cheap considering what packs of new stuff cost. I hope everyone enjoyed Packapalooza and I'll probably do this from time to time when I have a little time during a day.

Random Friday Packapalooza, Pt. 4

2008-08-15T22:19:00.001-04:00

Along with the Goudey blaster, I got one of Allen and Ginter to help my set along. How did I fare? Well let's find out!

Pack #1
116 Mariano Rivera
203 Jhonny Peralta
263 Yadier Molina
27 Brad Hawpe A&G Back Mini
Crack the Code Ad
166 Bram Stoker

Pack #2
20 Vladimir Guerrero
184 Felix Hernandez
143 J.J. Hardy
World Leaders Mini Manmohan Singh India
223 Nyjer Morgan
72 Clayton Kershaw

Pack #3
57 Ben Sheets
40 Justin Upton
348 Justin Masterson (SP)
57 Ben Sheet A&G Back Mini
State Flags Wyoming John Buck
154 Jesse Carlson
273 Jay Bruce

Pack #4
67 Kevin Kouzmanoff
236 Alex Gordon
220 Erik Bedard
313 Harriet Beecher Stowe (SP)
187 Les Miles Mini
State Flags Nebraska Alex Gordon
Checklist 3 of 4
42 Luke Scott

Pack #5
131 Todd Helton
149 Freddy Sanchez
17 Kenji Johjima
198 Steve Holm Mini
217 Friedrich Nietzsche
286 Pat Burrell

Pack #6
239 Brian Bannister
270 Lance Berkman
267 Andrew Miller
315 Tom Glavine (SP)
298 Greg Smith Mini
State Flags Illinois Curtis Granderson
Checklist 4 of 4
252 Callix Crabbe

Callix Crabbe has to be the best name in the whole set, bar none.

Pack #7
204 Julio Lugo
150 Johan Santana
235 Dan Haren
180 Ryan Braun
169 Howie Kendrick A&G Back Mini
Crack The Code Ad
233 Pluto

Pack #8
120 Derek Jeter
93 David Eckstein
51 Brian McCann
304 Victor Hugo (SP)
108 Alex Romero Mini
State Flags Florida Lastings Milledge
22 Chin -Lung Hu

Nothing spectacular in these packs, but I'm not looking for inserts. I'm trying to complete my set. And guess how many cards I got I needed for my set? 0. Not even any of the flag cards. Oh well. At least I have some to trade. I've got one more installment of Packapalooza and I have been saving the best for last. Oh yes I have.

Packapalooza Commercial Break

2008-08-15T21:07:00.004-04:00

I've been shamelessly plugging my needs list on occasion on here and have received many offers. If I haven't gotten back to you, I'm sorry. I've been here, there and everywhere the past few weeks. I'll try and get back to everyone I haven't contacted ASAP. But Dan from over at Saints of the Cheap Seats came through and sent me 78 cards I needed for my '08 Heritage Set. I'm working on getting his package together to send to him, but my list will be updated accordingly so everyone can see what I need now. Thanks Dan and yours will be in the mail soon. Packapalooza will continue in a little while.

Random Friday Packapalooza, Pt. 3

2008-08-15T20:40:00.000-04:00

So after I hit up the hobby shop, I went to Wal-Mart for a few things that I needed as well as a few blasters. The first up is 2008 Goudey.

Pack #1
191 Frank Thomas
35 Rich Hill
15 Erik Bedard
145 Richie Ashburn
176 B.J. Upton
72 Magglio Ordoñez
20 Jeremy Guthrie
108 Corey Hart

Pack of Blandness except for Ashburn.

Pack #2
165 Ichiro
113 Glen Perkins
61 Victor Martinez
9 Jeff Francoeur
19 Phil Neikro
192 Alex Rios
88 Billy Butler
Yankee Stadium Legacy 2928 05/29/1960 Moose Skowron

Great pack. Frenchy and Knucksie make this pack. And I don't think there's ever been a bad card made of Ichiro

Pack #3
137 Catfish Hunter
85 J.R. Towles
87 Luke Hochevar
5 Chris Young Mini
166 Felix Hernandez
114 Justin Morneau
62 Brad Hawpe
102 Eddie Matthews

Another great pack. Catfish is a great pull as well as the mini, but Eddie throws it over the top. 2 vintage Braves in 3 packs.

Pack #4
59 Grady Sizemore
7 Mark "Show Me the Money" Teixeira
198 Vernon Wells
234 U.S. President James Monroe
48 Joe Morgan
178 Carlos Peña
140 Ryan Howard
36 Kosuke Fukudome

Fukudome, a US Prez and Tex in a Braves uniform. Another good pack. And I can't get a Joe Morgan card and not link to one of the best sports blogs on the internet.

Pack #5
33 Alfonso Soriano
163 Juan Marichal
111 Delmon Young
22 David Ortiz
152 Tom Gorzelanny
100 Chin-Lung Hu
161 Aaron Rowand
154 Jake Peavy

This is a disappointment after the rest of the packs. Not even Marichal could save it.

Pack #6
187 Marlon Bird
135 Dennis Eckersley
83 Hunter Pence
31 Pee Wee Reese
34 Derrek Lee
126 Mariano Rivera
74 Andrew Miller
YSL 2953 07/28/1960 Yogi Berra

Pee Wee, Yogi and Eck along with Mario's favorite player. Good pack.

Pack #7
71 Gary "I'm on waivers" Sheffield
109 Yovani Gallardo
57 Cookies and Creme Sabathia
5 Chris Young
190 Roy Halladay
138 Daric Barton
34 Derrek Lee
24 Josh Beckett

First Pack without an old timer.

Pack #8
97 James Loney
45 Nick Swisher
175 Vince "A tarp machine ate me!" Coleman
269 1936 Ryan Howard Mini
164 Noah Lowry
112 Johan Santana
60 Fausto Carmona
8 John Smoltz

Wonderful pack. Being able to remember the hijinks of Vince Coleman along with the '36 Ryan Howard and John Smoltz's smiling mug make for a great last pack. Overall, I might try and make a set of this. I like the design, the way the pictures look like paintings and the inclusion of older players. I wish there were more minis though. More Packapalooza to come!

Random Friday Packapalooza, Pt. 2

2008-08-15T18:18:00.000-04:00

Back in 1993, I bought a box of 1993 Leaf Series 2. I came close to completing the set, but alas never did. Imagine my delight when I looked in the bargain bin and found 1993 Leaf Series 2 packs 6 for $5! I couldn't turn it down. So here's 6 packs of 1993 Leaf with limited interruptions:

Pack #1
374 Jose Mesa
385 John Orton
396 Willie McGee
407 Charlie Lebrandt
302 Reggie Jefferson
338 Wes Chamberlain
439 Robin Ventura
430 Julio Vallera
411 Jose Rijo
345 Rene Gonzales
242 Ivan Calderon
253 Jim Abbott
264 Pat Listach
275 Phil Plantier

Pack #2
245 Roberto Alomar
224 Ryne Sandberg
323 Mark McGwire
312 Alex Cole
315 Shane Mack
241 Jose Canseco
240 Steve Cooke
229 Brian Jordan
356 Domingo Martinez
392 Larry Walker
328 Ozzie Smith
383 Darren Holmes
374 Jose Mesa
365 Frank Tanana

Good Pack. 2 Hall of Famers, 2 Cheaters, 1 Spitter and Atlanta Favorite Brian Jordan in a Cardinals uni.

Pack #3
415 Eric Young
426 Gary Redus
437 Carlos Quintana
338 Wes Chamberlain
394 Lonnie Smith
321 Kevin Mitchell
260 Gary DiSarcina
269 Barry Bonds
278 Tom Henke
438 Omar Olivares
327 Dave Nilsson
228 Joe Carter
239 Dave Hollins
250 David Cone

Notice how small Bonds was in 1993.

Pack #4
303 John Cummings
292 Chuck Finley
281 Daryl Boston
300 Dennis Martinez
313 Mark Gardner
287 Norm Charlton
278 Tom Henke
269 Barry Bonds
260 Gary DiSarcina
19 Chipper Jones Gold Leaf Rookie (!!!!!!!)
334 Scott Fletcher
431 Cal Ripken, Jr.
422 Mike Macfarlane
413 Willie Wilson

Ok, I could just stop opening packs right now and be happy. Pulling a Chipper insert from 1993 is incredible as well as it being a card I don't have. The rest of these packs will just pale in comparison to this one.

Pack #5
389 Jeff Reardon
381 Manuel Lee
401 Mike Moore
412 Pete O'Brien
402 Jose Lind
297 Ray Lankford
306 David Segui
315 Shane Mack
324 Mark Langston
384 Charlie Hough
291 Rickey Henderson
302 Reggie Jefferson
313 Mark Gardner
324 Mark Langston

Pack #6
329 Candy Maldonado
230 Brett Butler
242 Ivan Calderon
248 Mike Felder
263 Joe Oliver
274 Chito Martinez
285 Wade Boggs
296 Jamie Navarro
225 Ron Gant
409 Bryn Smith
420 Tim Raines
401 Mike Moore
412 Pete O'Brien
383 Darren Holmes

A really good set of packs. Cracking the gloss adhesion between 15 year old cards should be an event in the World's Strongest Man competition. I'm ecstatic over the Chipper insert. I'm not pleased by the collation however as there were lots of doubles and even a double in one pack. That might explain why I didn't complete the set in 1993. I've always like this set design, especially the backs with the player superimposed in front of their team's city skyline or a landmark. Donruss would reuse this motif from the backs as the main design in 2004 Studio. I also like the team logo holograms in the corners. More Packapalooza later!

Random Friday Packapalooza, Pt. 1

2008-08-15T15:21:00.010-04:00

I ran down to the hobby shop today to pick up some pages for my binders and to maybe grab a few packs of Goudey as I haven't bought any this year. So I get there and Goudey as well as A&G were both 2 packs for $12. 2 for $12! Luckily, I was going right to Wal-Mart after that for some other things so I hoped they'd have blasters (foreshadowing). But I started looking around at the bargain packs and came across a few that I got. So throughout today, I'm going to be posting the packs that I got. To start off, we're opening up some 2003 Topps T205.
I never opened any of this when it came out in 2003, but I have a few of the cards that I aquired in trades or assorted lots. And I really wanted to open some of this, so 2 packs for $5. Better than either Goudey or A&G. Let's tear in.

Pack #1
53 Craig A. Biggio
77 Adam T. Dunn
24 Luis Emilio Gonzalez
30 Todd L. Helton Mini Brooklyn Back
TF13 Dynamic Duo Randy Johnson & Curt Schilling Triple Folder
125 Joseph P. Mauer
83 James H. Thome

Not a bad pack. I love Todd Helton with no facial hair. The Triple Folder is quite cool and a really neat insert. Now on to the next pack.

Pack #2
49 Carsten Charles Sabathia
103 Jason D. Kendall
18 Miguel O. Tejada
22 Mike Scioscia Mini Polar Bear Back
TF34 The Go-Ahead Run Jimmy Rollins & Pat Burrell Triple Folder
137 Jose Contreras
68 Frank E. Thomas
149 John J. McGraw

Another triple folder and an awesome John J. McGraw card. I'm really happy with the purchase of these packs. I love the full names with middle initials on the backs as well as the write ups. I might have to find a box of these in the future. Packapalooza will continue later today.

Today Another Voice is Silent

2008-08-03T22:15:00.003-04:00

The voice that many of us in the South and across the nation have heard call Braves games for many decades is now gone. Skip Caray, 68, died today in his sleep. I know from my childhood, I grew up listening to Skip, Pete and Joe call games on TBS and the Braves radio network. While he never grew to have as much fame as his dad, he called games his own way often having great quips. He called the Braves for 33 years and his most famous call is probably that of Sid Bream's winning run against the Pirates in the 1992 NLCS. I'll always love his naming random Atlanta suburbs for fans catching foul balls. While he was probably done wrong by the Braves in his latter years by being relegated to radio and Peachtree TV instead of the TBS games, Skip was always a professional and called games with words that, even on the radio, made it seem exactly like you were there. Every time I went to Atlanta Fulton County Stadium or Turner Field, I loved the experience, but always missed hearing Skip call games. Skip's son Chip has been calling Braves games for awhile now and I'm glad that his father got to pass the torch to him and hopefully, he can become as good as his father was. A consummate professional, I'll miss you Skip. We all will.

2008 Allen and Ginter Dual Box Break

2008-08-02T22:21:00.012-04:00

What you're going to get from this break of boxes is stats, pictures and a bit of commentary:

Box 1:
1 Cabinet Card (Battle of the Alamo)
Base: 143/350 (40.85% complete)
Doubles: 0
Short Prints: 12/50
State Flags: 22/50
Autos/Relics: 2 relics (R. Furcal Bat, B. Crosby Jersey)
World's Greatest Victories: 1/20 (Man Walks on the Moon)
Pioneers of Aviation: 1 (Piloted Glider)
World Leaders: 2 (Norway, Mongolia)
Allen and Ginter Minis: 13
Allen and Ginter Backed Minis: 6 (B. Butler, J. Papelbon, A. Pujols, G. Atkins, A. Huff, F. Hernandez)
Black Bordered Minis: 2 (A-Rod, J. Votto)

Box 2:
1 Cabinet Card (Three No-Nos)
Base: 144/350 (41.14% Complete)
Doubles: 0
Short Prints: 12/50
State Flags: 20/50
Autos/Relics: 3 Relics (A. Dunn Jersey, T. Helton Jersey, A. Kearns Bat) 1 Auto (O. Hudson)
World's Greatest Victories: 1/20 (Bill Mazeroski)
Pioneers of Aviation: 1 (Ornithopter)
World Leaders: 2 (Brazil, South Korea)
Baseball Legends: 1 (Pee Wee Reese)
Allen and Ginter Minis: 12
Allen and Ginter Backed Minis: 6 (Wild Bill Hickok, J. Smoltz, A. Romero, J. Chestnut, L. Hochever, R. Ohlendorf)
Black Bordered Minis: 2 (A-Rod, J. Votto)

Boxes Combined:
Base: 281/350 (80.29% Complete)
Doubles: 6
Triples: 0
Short Prints: 24/50

I've been waiting for this set ever since last year and I can say that Topps really didn't disappoint. The first box was scant, but the second box was packed. 4 autogamers as well as a pleathora of other inserts made me a happy camper. Having only 6 doubles between the boxes is incredible and a set collectors dream. The World Leaders insert is better than last year's Flags in my opinion and I love the Pioneers of Aviation. I was surprised to pull the same 2 black bordered cards from both boxes, however. I might try and collect all of the baseball legend minis. Trying to complete the whole mini set will be a pain this year due to so many mini inserts. Maybe retail will relieve this. I haven't decided if I'm going to buy another box or just go strictly retail and trading from here on out, but I think box prices will determine that. Overall, I think that this, once again, might be the best set of the year.

Allen and Ginter Boxes to be posted tonight

2008-08-02T18:43:00.004-04:00

But in the meantime, I went to Target today and they had a few 2008 Heritage Blasters that I guess they found in the back, so I bought one as I am trying to complete my set. So feast your eyes on my pull from the blaster:

The Trading Floor is Now Open

2008-07-26T18:51:00.001-04:00

I just posted a needs list of 2008 Topps Heritage and 2007 Allen and Ginter. I'll add to it as I come across sets that I need cards for, but if you see something you've got, e-mail me with your needs and we'll see if we can work out a deal.

Pre-Ginter blaster

2008-07-25T21:52:00.008-04:00

While I'm waiting on my boxes of A&G to get here, I figured I'd open up a blaster of the homeless man's A&G, Upper Deck Artifacts. Artifacts feature historical moments cards much like A&G features historical figures and subjects. Artifacts also has Hollywood memorabilia inserts. Lets crack in and see what we got:

Pack 1:
#135 David Davidson RC
#167 Historical Moments Eiffel Tower
#42 Carlos Lee
#68 Phil Hughes
#200 Historical Moments Jamestown

2 historical moments in one pack and one which should have added a few more letters to make it a Historical Monument card, but whatever.

Pack 2:
#149 Ross Detwiler RC
#181 Historical Moments Benjamin Franklin
YSL 3968 Yankee Stadium Legacy Graig Nettles
#3 Justin Upton
#69 (hehe) Mariano Rivera

The game features on the YSL card is against the Indians on October 1, 1972. The Yanks lost 2-1 and Graig Nettels, who is featured on the card, didn't even play. Ben Franklin also looks like a pedophile that is trying to seduce a young boy by dangling a key.

Pack 3:
#195 Historical Moments The Supreme Court
#55 Joe Mauer
#81 Barry Zito
#106 Clay Buchholz RC
#107 Kevin Hart RC

The Supreme Court card is a card after my own heart, being in law school and all. This is the first baseball card that combines law and sports cards by itself

Pack 4:
#121 J.R. Towles
#153 Historical Moments Declaration of Independence
#46 Torii Hunter
#16 Dustin Pedroia
#4 Chris Young

If Upper Deck could get its hands on the Declaration of Independence, it would chop it up and put it on cards. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they bought one of the handwritten and signed copies of it and did just that.

Pack 5:
#19 Daisuke Matsuzaka
#58 Jose Reyes
HM-19 A Piece of Hollywood George Clooney Pants from "Three Kings"
#134 Jerry Blevins RC

Hey I got me some George Clooney pants and from one of his best movies. And Clooney is one of my 5 actors that I'd like to just hang out with. Upper Deck couldn't secure permission to use his name, so on the back of the card it says that the pants were worn by "George". Hopefully, they mean Clooney and not some extra named George.

Pack 6:
#20 Curt Schilling
#85 Felix Hernandez
#168 Historical Moments Suez Canal Opens
#116 Harvey Garcia RC
#191 Historical Moments Nobel Prize

Notice that I have only gotten 2 true Historical Moments in these packs. The rest have been things, people, documents and monuments.

Pack 7:
#139 Eugenio Velez RC
#154 Christoper Columbus
#29 Matt Holliday
#94 Josh Hamilton
#30 Troy Tulowitzki

I love that Columbus and Holliday were right next to each other.

Well this really is a few steps down from A&G, but I am now able to say that I can get in George Clooney's pants. Kinda. I didn't even pull one Brave from this box. Boo.

Did you realize that you are a champion in their eyes?

2008-07-24T22:38:00.003-04:00

Maybe Kanye, but are you a WORLD'S champion? So far, I have yet to see you on an Allen and Ginter card. Yes it's that time again when A&G fever is sweeping the nation. I've got 2 boxes on their way to me (Under $180 and that includes shipping!) so in the mean time, I need to finish my 2007 A&G set. I know some people sent me trade requests a looooooong time ago but then school got in the way and all kinds of stuff. Anywho, I'm looking for trades now and these are the cards I need:

#2 Mike Gonzalez
#20 Vlad Guerrero
#24 Susan B. Anthony
#27 Scott Podesnik
#44 Matt Lindstrom
#48 Gary Matthews
#51 Dan Haren
#58 Mike Mussina
#63 Bengie Molina
#67 Ryan Shealy
#78 Carlos Guillen
#80 Chase Utley
#114 Homer Bailey
#127 Brandon Philips
#135 Jared Weaver
#140 Nick Swisher
#147 Billy Butler
#158 Jason Kendall
#185 Troy Glaus
#219 Dan Uggla
#235 Barry Zito
#247 Dave Roberts
#256 Hideki Matsui
#264 Aaron Rowand
#274 Tim Lincecum
#283 Chris Capuano
#301 Chris Duncan
#302 Augie Garrido
#308 Mark Zupan
#310 Greg Maddux
#326 Alex Rios
#341 Adrian Gonzalez
#342 Chad Cordero
#348 Roger Clemens
#350 Adam Laroche

Baseball + Music = Awesome

2008-07-11T01:39:00.003-04:00

For those of you who love both music and baseball, I suggest, no, I implore you, to check out the new album by The Baseball Project called Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails. Fronted by Scott McCaughey (R.E.M., The Minus 5) and Steve Wynn (Gutterball, Dream Syndicate) with Peter Buck (R.E.M., The Minus 5) and Linda Pitmon (Golden Smog, Miracle 3) rounding out the band, the album takes both rock and baseball and combines them into one incredible package. The album features such tracks as "Gratitude (For Curt Flood)", "Ted F****** Williams" and "Sachel Paige Said". My favorite song on the album is "Harvey Haddix" as it earnestly pleads for Haddix to be included with pitchers who have thrown perfect 9 inning games. For those who don't know, Haddix had a perfect game going into the 13th inning on May 26, 1959 against the Milwaukee Braves who lost the game on a home run it by Joe Adcock. It's often referred to as the "Greatest Game Ever Pitched". But my words can't do this song, or album, justice. Go pick it up and give it a listen. The music is great, the lyrics are incredible and a baseball geek's dream.

2008 Topps Chrome Blaster Break

2008-07-11T00:32:00.008-04:00

I'm heading to Mississippi for a week on Saturday, but I bought a blaster at Target because I really enjoy this set.

Bonus Pack:

TCCP3 Matt Holliday

TCCP4 Luke Hochevar

These are done in the 400 series designs like what came inserted with the Heritage blaster packs, but they're full sized and chrome.

Pack 1:

99 Nick Markakis

MMSC52 Mickey Mantle Story

MHRC536 Mickey Mantle Home Run History

214 Clete Thomas

2 inserts in a pack...but not ones I would have hoped for

Pack 2:

115 Joe Blanton

C105 Topps Heritage Chrome Johan Santana

101 Randy Johnson Blue Refractor

49 Scott Rolen

I really REALLY like the blue refractors

Pack 3:

67 Roy Halladay

TCHC9 Joe Mauer Trading Card History 1941 Play Ball

200 Elliot Johnson XFractor

77 Carlos Ruiz

Pack 4:

39 Brad Penny

163 Greg Maddux

72 Brandon Phillips Copper Refractor

150 Homer Bailey

It's kinda hard for me to tell the copper refractors from a gold on the first glance. But then you look again and you can tell it's copper.

Pack 5:

79 Paul Konerko

TCHC8 Albert Pujols 1916 Zeenuts

96 Jered Weaver Refractor

170 Yadier Molina

Jesse Jackson wants to cut off Zeenuts!

Pack 6:

143 Carlos Lee

55 Orlando Hudson

178 Jo Jo Reyes XFractor

166 Michael Young

If I were Joe Collector, I'd call this Jo Jo MoJo.

Pack 7:

11 Yovani Gallardo

194 Adam Jones

33 Jeremy Hermida XFractor

122 Chone Figgins

Overall, I enjoyed my purchase. The blue refractors are the best of the bunch. They should have just made the whole set blue.

All Chromed Out

2008-06-28T21:34:00.010-04:00

Today at Target, I spied what looked to be two recently opened boxes of 2008 Topps Chrome. What the heck I thought, so I fished around in the boxes and selected 2 packs from each. Here's what I came up with.

Pack 1
177 Daniel Cabrera
TCHC2 Joba Chamberlain Trading Card History '55 Bowman

194 Adam Jones Copper Refractor
126 Rocco Baldelli
checklist 1 of 2

Pack 2
107 Alex Gordon
TCHC4 Prince Fielder Trading Card History 1934 Diamond Stars

92 Adam Dunn XFractor
10 Cole Hamels
checklist 1 of 2

Pack 3
91 Derrek Lee
TCHC7 Ryan Braun Trading Card History 1960 Topps

96 Jered Weaver XFractor
110 Aaron Harang
checklist 2 of 2

Pack 4
115 Joe Blanton
67 Roy Halladay

80 Jorge Posada XFractor
145 Franciso Liriano

4 Packs. 4 refractors with one being numbered to 599. as well as 3 trading card history cards. Not a bad haul. Lots and lots of shiny cards for me today!

Going, going...gone.

2008-06-11T14:22:00.004-04:00

I'm there's not going to be any posts for the next week or so probably. Don't worry, I'm not pulling a Mario or a Ben Henry, but more of a Chris Harris. There's a little get-together in Tennessee that I'm attending, so that's the main reason there won't be any posts. However, since this is one of my favorite long weekends of the year, I'm going leave you for the next few days with a picture of probably my favorite item of memorabilia I own.

How to Build a Better Set

2008-06-07T23:07:00.020-04:00

In the midst of all this uproar about gimmick cards and not enough value for the money, there have been many suggestions on how to change this, about the collectors boycotting certain products and the blogs refusing to cover certain brands. However, I don't think anyone has given a true break down on how to change things. Ben Henry has given the suggestion that I feel is probably the suggestion that the majority of collectors would agree upon: make your base set better. His his blog post, Mr. Henry doesn't answer how we do that, but says to make every card fun. Okay, that's great but how do the manufacturers accomplish this? What do they need to do in order to make every card fun? I believe this can be accomplished with five things. I have taken a look at my favorite set of the past 20 years that's a flagship set (A flagship set is defined as a company's base set that is often put out in two or more series and is often only called by the company name and then the series number) for the manufacturer and based my reasoning on what makes this set different from the ones today. The set I am basing my rationale on is 1993 Upper Deck. Not only is this probably my favorite modern card set, but it is a favorite of many collectors.

1. Card Design

Card companies now seem to think more is more when in actuality, most collectors probably would agree that often times less is more. The base card in 1993 Upper Deck (93UD) was clean, simplistic and stylish. The Upper Deck logo appeared nowhere on the front of the card although the words "Upper Deck" did appear horizontally across the top of the card. Often times, the words were relegated to the background of the photo and often having the player(s) in the foreground covering part of the words "Upper Deck". This subtle move focused the collector on the photograph and not on the trademark. The white borders framed the photographs well. The player's name was written in an elegant gold script that was not foil, but had a shimmer to it. The band behind the player's name was in team colors and was unobtrusive. The team name was simple and sublime, yet was easily noticeable. The back was also a standout in terms of design. There was another photograph that took up about 2/3 of the card and was different from the front photograph. The player's name and position were repeated in block lettering under the photograph. There were amended stats for only the five previous seasons, but the photograph more than made up for it. Today, there are big, gaudy team names across the top of cards, gratuitous uses of foil or foil that can't be read. There's often more border than photograph and the company logo often draws attention to itself an d away from the photograph. In this year's Topps design, I find my eyes immediately going to the team name or to the Topps logo which is smack in the middle of the photo. The backs are uninteresting and are plainer than white bread. The companies need to see that less IS more and that a design that focuses the collectors eyes on the

photograph is more appealing than all the foil in the world.

2. Photographs

Even when there weren't thirty sets a year being produced by each company, you could see a different photograph for a particular player in every set. Now, photographs are often used multiple times by the manufacturer and are often from the year before the set came out. To me, this just says that the manufacturers are lazy. Okay, I take that back, Topps is lazy. Their photographs are boring. There's no action and they don't draw me in. There's no photos of turning a double play or sliding into home, trying to beat a throw. They're mostly posed photos and those taken in the game seem to be of players waiting on a pitch or standing on base during a time out by the opposing team. While there are a few exceptions to this, this seems to be the norm for Topps. Upper Deck has and does have superior photography on its cards. The photos draw you in, there's action and even when there's not action you like looking at the card. In 93UD, every card was full of action. Even the portrait shots drew you in. Some of this, I believe, has to do with whatever filter they put the photographs through to make the colors pop like they did, but even without the color filters, the shots were impressive. And having two different photos on each card gave you twice the action. Now many cards have only one photo or if there is more than one, it's usually a reproduction of the same photo that is on the front. The reuse of photos bugs the heck out of me. Surely the photographers didn't only take one photo of some of the biggest stars of the game. Everything is computerized today and I'm sure the companies have a database of photos. It shouldn't be that hard to open up a new file and stick that photo on the card instead of the same photo that was used for your 5 previous sets. UD has always used great photography on their cards. Topps HAD great photography (look at Stadium Club) and they need to get it back.

3. Subsets

The manufacturers need to make subsets exciting again. Today, subsets are often created by having slight tweaks to the base design using different wording or logos. In 93UD, every subset looked completely different. And they were all exciting. The Team Stars subset (maybe the greatest subset ever created), paired together the big stars of each team, gave them a nickname and had them in great poses even sometimes with props. The Peter Gammons subset, I mean really anything done by Gammons dealing with baseball has to be good.

The Star Rookie subset which had a sleek design and great info on the back. The Community Heroes subset which gave another look at what some of the heroes of baseball do outside of the game. Each subset was unique, fun and exciting. Every time I got one of these sub

set cards, I felt like I was getting an insert, even though it was part of the base set. They made me say "Wow! This is a cool card!" and not because it was limited to 100 copies or was a refractor. It was cool because it featured great players, it helped me learn about new ones and showed that baseball players cared about people. The subsets of today are often award winners and season highlights and that's it. If I wanted to know that stuff, I can go to Wikipedia or whatever an look it up. Give me something inside, something that makes me go "Wow!" Show me players having fun together, in goofy poses, something out of the ordinary. Make them so different from the base set that there's no guessing if it's a subset or not and make the collector be as excited to get these cards as they would be to get any insert.

4. Inserts

If you're going to have inserts, make them quality inserts. 1993 Upper Deck had a lot of inserts, but they focused on the player or the photography and not the gimmick or a swatch or autograph. Sure there was the Baseball Heroes autograph of Willie Mays you could potentially pull, but it was so hard to pull one out of a pack due to low numbers of cards and high quantity of product. But the Iooss Collection focused on the photography. Future Heroes focused on what young stars could potentially become while Then and Now showed where some of the older stars had been and introduced young collectors to some of their favorite players in a way they might not have seen before when they were young stars. Then and Now also used one of the most tasteful applications of a hologram maybe ever. On Deck allowed the collector to get to know the players a bit better with personal questions answered on the back of the card. I know that every box can't contain an A-Rod autograph, but if I'm spending $80 for a box of flagship set cards, I want some value out of that. If I pay for a box of Topps Sterling, I know I'm at least getting a card of a star. The box of flagship set could contain a swatch of jersey from someone who's out of MLB or an autograph of a nobody. How do you remedy this?

Do you go back to the early days of inserts to where there were very few inserts and the chance to get a big one was almost non-existent or do you make tons of sets and dilute the quality of inserts but make sure that everyone gets inserts at a decent ratio? Personally, I think you do away with inserts like the Generation Now or others like that which are often filler. Keep certain historical ones like the World War II or Presidential Elections. Have other certain inserts which are cool and have the "Wow!" factor much like the mini All-Star jerseys in 2008 Topps Series 1. As for the Autos and Game-Used inserts, what I'd like to see is more quality of the player selection and maybe insert ratios which make them harder to get. Maybe one every other box instead of every box. Maybe put out an ultra low-end product where you can put all the autos of rookies and game-used swatches of relief pitchers and utility infielders. This, out of all of the issues, will be the hardest to remedy.

5. Price

When I have to pay $60-$80 for a box of the flagship set and not get a complete set, I feel something is wrong. $1.50-$2.00 per pack should be right in the wheelhouse for this kind of set. And it also says something about the hobby when the stores have to mark product up so much to keep themselves in business.

While this is by no means an exhaustive list, I feel that it is a step that is in the right direction of what a set should be and what it could be if both Upper Deck and Topps got their act together. Especially Topps.

The Next Big Thing

2008-06-05T13:57:00.002-04:00

Well the MLB Draft is today and once again, the Tampa Bay Rays have the first pick. Last year, they selected David Price from Vanderbildt. This year, withe the draft set to start at any moment as I type this, they are selecting Beckham. No, not that Beckham, Tim Beckham, the high school shortstop from Griffin, Georgia. He's 6'2", 190 and was MVP of the Aflac All-American Classic. There are people who are even comparing him, right now, to Barry Larkin. If that's true, get used to seeing this face. TriStar, start your engines....

My trash IS my treasure

2008-06-03T17:37:00.004-04:00

I recently traded in my old car as I was having issues with it that were going to cost me money that I didn't have to fix. So I traded it in and got a new one. In this process I had to clean out the car. I put everything in a trash bag so I could go through it. I finally got around to going through the trash bag and sorting what was trash and what was not. I knew that I would have some cards in there as I do occasionally open a pack in the car and they find their way to the center console or glove box. So going through the menagerie of objects today I came across a card that I don't even remember pulling.

It's a 2007 Topps Chrome XFractor of Brandon Phillips. Brandon is having quite a good year this year with the Reds and could come close to a 30/30 season with him already hitting 11 HRs and stolen 9 bases. The scan doesn't do justice to how wonderfully shiny this thing is. So remember kids, go through all your stuff. You never know what you'll find there.

Viva La Vida or Death and All Its Friends

2008-06-02T16:31:00.005-04:00

The title of this essay comes from the title of the upcoming Coldplay album, but thinking about it, I thought it applied to what once was the lifeblood of this hobby. I'm talking about the Hobby Shops. Card Stores. Whatever you call them, once they were the heartbeat of the collector. Hobby stores offered that personal touch. There was camaraderie and often more emotions were shown in a hobby store than in a Hollywood movie. If you had a great pull from a pack, the owner and whoever else was present, would be excited with you and the reverse was true. If you had a pack or box that had crap in it, the owner sympathized with you and sometimes would even throw in a freebie just to make sure you got your money's worth. However, today these occurrences are rare if they happen at all. So what happened? It can be summed up in one word: Technology.

Driving home from the store today, my path takes me by a card store located on a major road that I had been in a few times. For the past few weeks, I had noticed that there had been no lights on and there were no cars in front of the section of the strip mall where the storefront is located. Today, my fears were confirmed. A body art shop, hawking piercing and tattoos instead of game-used patches and autographs, had taken the place of the card shop. The lone remnant that allowed you to have any idea that a card store was once there was the sign that had not yet been taken down that was among all the other proprietors of the strip mall. Hanging as if it was left by a criminal trying to flee town, knowing he was being chased, the sign gives one look at the fate of the hobby shop. Why did it close? What did the owner go and do after he closed? I don't know. I do know that when I went in there, there weren't many people coming in and out. He also didn't have much new product. But the exact reason for closure remains a mystery.

By contrast, the card shop I frequent now is located just off a main road, obscured by a building. If you didn't know where the store was, you might not see it. However, their business is thriving. They are always full of new product as well as old product. The owners are cheerful and talkative and I have never left there, even without a purchase, feeling disappointed. They've also been in business for decades. How are they doing it? While they do have higher prices on their boxes and packs, even within the first few days of release, they're making most of their money on the internet. They have a website where you can search a database of millions of cards from previous years as well as see what new products in stock. Every time I have visited the store, they have been busy stuffing bubble mailers and packages full of product to be shipped anywhere in the country. Instead of fighting the beast that is the Internet, they have embraced it and seem to have done well for themselves for it. The technology allows the product to get to the masses, but what happens when the masses don't want the product?

Technology has changed baseball cards in ways other than eBay sales and ordering cards online. The technology of cards has changed the way companies market their cards. It all started with gloss and foil and then came holograms, embossment, die-cuts, chrome, refractors, mirrors, plastic cards, phone cards, pop-ups, puzzles and the biggest change with game-used memorobilia. Once these technological advances started hitting the shelves, many collectors quit caring about base sets and only cared about inserts. No more ooh-ing and aah-ing over that base rookie card or superstar. Only if it's a maroon refraXion die-cut chrome numbered to 10 is it worth anything. Now that's not saying that all companies are doing is putting out bad product. Topps' Allen and Ginter has been a hit with set collectors and insert chasers for a few years, although this might be the year that A&G jumps the shark. Upper Deck puts out enough different sets that everyone should be able to find one set of theirs they enjoy for whatever reason.

But that's not to say that everything the companies do is in the best interest of the hobby. With the recent surge in gimmick cards being put out by both Topps and UD, it feels like they both take collectors for sheep being led to the slaughter to hand over their hard earned cash for cards that they'll likely never find in a pack. In this economy, it's hard for any regular person to spend hundreds of dollars on cards looking for one card or trying to complete a set. But it seems, at least online, that the collectors have taken off their blinders. They see that the Emperor has no clothes on.

So where does that leave us now? The card collecting community is closer than ever thanks to blogs, message boards and other useful tools of the internet. However, I personally don't think posting a pull or box break on a blog is as exciting as making the big pull live in front of people you have a personal relationship with. That being said, it's an exciting time to be a collector. With so many blogs being in the spotlight and being read by people who run the industry, it feels like it might be time for another revolution in the card industry. And this brings me back to Coldplay. For the album cover, the band chose to use a painting by Eugéne Delacroix titled Liberty Leading The People (La Liberté guidant le peuple) which commemorates the July Revolution of 1830. Viva La Vida. It means "Live the Life" or "Live Long Life". Viva La vida or death and all its friends. The card industry will have a long life. If it can get through the strike year in 1994, it can hold itself up now. However for a revolution to occur, there will be deaths. Hobby shops will close, brands and certain card imprints will go by the wayside. But hopefully it won't all be for naught. I hope that we see changes that are aimed at what the consumer wants and not what the manufactures THINK the consumer wants. In this day and age of user-generated content it shouldn't be hard. Viva la vida. Viva la revolucion.

I don't have anything to write about really

2008-06-01T22:50:00.005-04:00

So here's a Chipper Patch card. This is actually my first patch card I've ever owned as well as my only piece of game-worn/used memorabilia from Chipper. Who has been tearing it up lately and it's finally getting people to notice him. He's probably been one of the top five players in the National League for years now, but hasn't got as much attention as some other players who have done less than he has. Even when he won the MVP, there wasn't the media outpouring that one would expect and I feel that his MVP year was similar to the same fanfare that Justin Morneau received for his in 2006. Now Morneau has a few more years to prove that he's in the same league as Chipper, but I think that their MVP years are comparable. Of course, Chipper is getting to the end of his career and is starting to be mentioned in the same statistical circles as Mantle and the like. And when all is said and done, he'll probably be, arguably, the greatest switch-hitter ever. That's right. I said it.

Wait, he did what?

2008-05-19T23:15:00.004-04:00

Unless you've been a hole, you've probably heard that Jon Lester threw a no-hitter tonight against the Royals. As part of their coverage of this feat, ESPN posted a list of all the no-hitters in MLB history. So I was perusing the list when something jumped out at me. In 1991, there was the combined no-hitter for the Braves by Kent Mercker, Alejandro Pena and Mark Wohlers. This is a memory that is etched into my mind and will never forget it. So I keep looking at the list and I see in 1994 Kent Mercker threw another one for the Braves. Wait...what? It seems that the fact that Mercker tossed a no-hitter against the Dodgers went by the wayside when The Strike happened that year. Kent Mercker might be the most unlikely player to have multiple no-hit credits to his name. Him or Bobby Witt. But the thing is, Kent is still playing. He's on the 15-day DL right now for the Reds, but he's still playing. Kent hasn't reached the level of performance he had when he was with the Braves, but he's been pitching well in recent years. In fact, he was out of baseball in 2007, but got a spring training invite from the Reds. He went to the minors, but was called up to the big club. Hopefully, he can get off the DL and have some quality relief for the Reds, because I've always liked Kent. Except when he blew games for the Braves.

Mr. Anderson......

2008-05-15T12:32:00.005-04:00

I'm done with finals and can finally catch everyone up on what's been grabbing my attention in the card world lately. When I collect, my main focuses are Braves and Chipper Jones specifically. However, when you're trying to collect a player of Chipper's caliber, the price of cards can get really high really quick. So I decided to look for someone, a Braves player, that I can collect and get high end cards of and not break the bank. After doing some looking around, I settled on a guy that caught my attention when I went to spring training. So here, for the first time, is my collection of Josh Anderson
While I don't have that many right now, what I do have are good quality and upper end cards. I don't think I've payed more than $10 total including shipping for any of these, with most coming in the $1-$3 range. Josh might not be a star right away, but flashes of brilliance were seen last year with the Astros. He might be the answer to the outfield platoon in left that the Braves have had for so many years. Also, my one complaint is that I need more cards of Josh in a Braves uniform. Even on the Co-Signers card, he's airbrushed. Tisk tisk Topps. So this is a call: If you have any Josh Anderson cards for trade, let me know. I might take them off your hands.

Seriously I'm not dead

2008-05-08T17:41:00.003-04:00

I've been in exam mode for awhile now. They just started yesterday and I'll be done with them next Thursday. So expect more posts after that. and hopefully I'll have something about a new player collection I've started recently soon as well.

2008 Spectrum

2008-04-18T18:14:00.007-04:00

I went and got a blaster of Spectrum last night. No detailed breakdown, but you'll see how the box went in the style of a 1st grader: 2 words or less and pictures.

Meh.

Decent.

Better.
MUCH Better.
Best.

2008 Allen and Ginter

2008-04-14T22:24:00.003-04:00

Well I know where my money is going. The sell sheets for this went out today and I'm highly anticipating this set. I do need to finish last years set though. Just looking over the checklist, here are some of the non-baseball highlights with some still to be determined:

Stevie Williams - Pro Street Skater

Matt Biondi - Olympic Swimmer

Kerri Strug which will probably feature either this or this image

Nicky Hayden - Motorcycle Racer

Joey Chestnut - Pro Eater

Bonnie Blair - Olympic Speedskater

Dan Jansen - Olympic Speedskater

The DNA card makes a return and instead of there just being one, there are 8 subjects which are slated to be Abraham Lincoln, John Adams, Andrew Jackson, JFK, Jackie O, Alexander Hamilton, a Wooly Mammoth and a dinosaur fossil. World Leaders, Baseball Icons, US States and Ancient Icons are all inserts now, making the master set that much harder. Cut Sigs are back with Daniel Webster, John Paul Getty, J. Edgar Hoover and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle leading the way of what has been determined at this time. A cut sig of L. Ron Hubbard is included in the list which should be put on e-Bay as soon as someone gets it in hope of Tom Cruise paying a lot of money for it.

The Future Is Now!

2008-04-14T02:17:00.003-04:00

While trying to get caught up on my blog reading and everything else, (yes yes, apologies about the lack of posts. Hopefully once exams are over in mid-May, there will be more posting) I was reading that dayf had a prediction about the inclusion of celebrity autos becoming more commonplace in the hobby. Well low and behold 2008 Spectrum did just that, which dayf missed in the sell sheet, which is even more hilarious because he commented on the Winkler auto over at Wax Heaven (you know I'm just ribbing you dayf.) So after looking at some stuff and taking a gander on e-bay for what's available right now, here's my thoughts on the whole thing. I figured it might take a few years to get to the point where the "stars" that are signing the cards are at the level of the utility infielder/rookie autograph that is often the hit of a box. Nope, looks like they went for medicority right out of the gate with most of the autos (at least the ones that are on e-bay right now) being from 80's hair metal bands and not the people that you've usually heard of from said bands. Oh sure, there's Sebastian Bach and Dee Snider, but for every one of those, there's 5 Dan Dokkens or Mark Mendozas listed. The best ones I see listed are a few Tom Bosley, Larry Hagman,and Eric Roberts cards. There's one Henry Winkler and it's a die-cut SP. There is also one of the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. I mean, couldn't you get all of the people that played bit parts on Seinfeld to sign cards? And I'm sure Michael Richards isn't doing a whole lot these days. At least most people would recognize them where as no one can tell the difference between the bassist from White Lion and the lead singer of Ratt. Get Jaleel White, Jodie Sweetin, Bob Saget, Craig T. Nelson, Dustin Diamond even someone like Jeff Probst who might just be a host, but I know who he is. I'd feel like I'm getting some value out of the cards at least then. Also, if you're a new collector, around the age of 13-15 and are being drawn in with the celeb autos as being one of the selling points, wouldn't it make sense to have autos of someone these kids would recognize? I'm not saying make every card someone from the Disney Channel, but maybe make some cards that are known by both the older and younger set like Hillary Duff or Shia Labouf. Now I understand that you can't make every autograph a big celebrity like Matt Damon or Bruce Springsteen, but there are recognizable faces that are more than willing to shame themselves on reality shows for weeks and weeks. I think they'd be open to doing one day of autographs and I know UD has the money. So basically what I'm saying is that if I want a box of overpriced crap celebrity autographs, I'll buy a box of Donruss Americana because at least most of those people I've heard of.

Jordan Schafer - HGH User

2008-04-08T21:54:00.002-04:00

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2008/04/08/schafer_0409.html

The top prospect in the system has now been tainted. Hopefully, he'll not be effected by this and still be a great hitter when he makes The Show.

I'm not dead, but my bracket might be

2008-03-22T01:38:00.003-04:00

Sorry bout the lack of posts. Between school, other stuff and being in and out of town, it's been kind of hard to post. But I'm still alive and kicking and hopefully will have some good stuff next week.

Best Job Ever, Next to MLB GM

2008-03-11T14:17:00.001-04:00

Great article here on Gregg Forwerck who shot the '92 Bowman Chipper Jones Shorts card.

COTW for 3/9/08: 1994 Topps Finest #327 Marvin Freeman

2008-03-10T15:26:00.005-04:00

"Starvin'" Marvin Freeman was one of my favorite players on the Braves in the early 90's. This was mainly because he was the only Brave to ever give me an autograph at the ballpark before the game started. He played for the Braves from 1990 to 1993 when he was released by the Braves and signed by the Rockies. When The Strike happened, Marvin was having a career year going 10-2 with a 2.80 ERA for the Rockies. Somehow, Marvin learned how to pitch in the thin air of Coors Field. Because of The Strike, he never got to be an All-Star. He pitched in the Majors until 1996, but never regained the form of 1994. Some say the incident with Jim Rome combined with his dwindling effectiveness sped up his departure from baseball. Marvin now is an assistant coach for a high school baseball team in Illinois.

COTW for 3/2/08: 1959 Topps #373 Herb Plews

2008-03-04T01:03:00.003-05:00

In honor of last week's Topps Heritage release, we have this card. Prior to getting my Topps buy back in one of my boxes last week, this was the only 1959 Topps card I owned. I can't remember where I got it. I believe it was from one of those baseball card "chests" (it was actually a cardboard box that had a chest-like design on it) that you order from Lillian Vernon or a like catalogue that's filled with mostly late 80's Donruss and Topps crap, but you get some good old cards. Maybe not of stars, but old cards none the less. Old Smilin' Herb here played in the Bigs from 1956 to 1959 with his last season being 1959 where he split time between the Washington Senators and the Boston Red Sox. Herb wasn't known for his hitting, he only hit .262 for his lifetime average. Herb did put up some good defense, though with a career fielding percentage of .959. This is with Herb playing 2nd, 3rd and short stop in all 4 seasons that he played. Herb had some Real One autos inserted into packs of '59 Heritage and he currently lives in a retirement community in Boulder, Colorado.

Chipper. Hamstring. Tweaked.

2008-03-02T16:54:00.005-05:00

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2008/03/02/chipper_0303.html

Double Box Break Update

2008-02-29T23:00:00.004-05:00

With the 2 boxes combined, I have 239/500 (47.8%) of the base cards which doesn't include the black backs. The boxes when combined had 72 doubles. That's exactly half the cards in the box. In a 500 card set, I'd expect less doubles even with short prints. Like I said, this set is going to be a beast.

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun

2008-02-29T21:30:00.022-05:00

Two boxes of 2008 Heritage are better than one! Here's a double box break:

Box 1:

I opened up the box to find a 3 panel strip and a buy back. Here's my buy back:

Joe played in the Major Leagues for 13 seasons (1948-1962) with his best season being in 1951 when he had 304 at-bats, hit .260 with 8 home runs and 37 RBI. Not the best card, but I love having old cards, no matter how good the player.

Now the 3 card strip:OH...MY...GOSH! I about crapped myself when I pulled this out. This is like the best box topper EVER. Tex, Smoltz, The Jones Boys....this has it all. Dayf, eat your heart out.

Now, the box stats:
Base Set: 154/500 (30.8%)
Doubles: 0
Black Backs: 24
Chrome Parallel: 3 (Matt Cain 1141/1959, Vernon Wells 1159/1959, Miguel Cabrera 1176/1959)
Refractor Parallel: 1 (Felix Hernandez 85/559)
News Flashbacks: 2 (Clutter Family, Fidel Castro)
Baseball Flashbacks: 1 (Orlando Cepeda)
Then and Now: 2 (Eddie Matthews and A-Rod, Johnny Podres and Eric Bedard)
Clubhouse Collection Relics: 2 (David Ortiz, Eric Chavez)
I really don't know if I could have asked more of this box. If they would have thrown me an auto and a relic instead of 2 relics, it might have made it better, but I'm not really sure. But this was a great box. OK on to Box 2

No buy back in this one, but here is my 3 card strip from the 2nd box:

Goodness, that's a strip of straight suck. And a Matt Capps pink card. Ugh. Ok, box stats:

Base Set: 157/500 (31.4%)
Black Backs: 24
Chrome Parallel: 3 (Ben Sheets 1150/1959, Jose Valverde 1160/1959, Francisco Rodriguez 1456/1959)
Refractor Parallel: 1 (James Shields 76/559)
News Flashbacks: 2 (Luna 2, Dalai Lama)
Baseball Flashbacks: 2 (Mickey Mantle, Ernie Banks)
Then & Now: 1 (Orlando Cepeda and Magglio Ordonez)
New Age Performers: 1 (Brandon Webb)
Real One Autographs: 1 (Bob Blaylock)

The second box was nowhere as good as the first, however I did get an autograph which is an on-card signature. Bob only appeared in 17 Major League games in his career with 3 of those coming in 1959. He pitched 9 innings, gave up 8 hits, struck out 3 and had an ERA of 4.00. Once again, not a great player, but I'm very glad to have his signature.

This set is going to be a complete beast to put together especially if you're trying to do the master set (which I am). It'll take a minimum of 4 boxes to get the complete set and with the short prints and all, it'll take more than 4. Since there isn't a clear short print checklist out yet and only postulations (actually, Beckett.com has a listing, but I'm too lazy to go through everything again), I held off on listing how many of those I got, but they're 1:3 packs so I should have gotten 8 or so in each box. I'm going to put all these cards in pages and I'll update everyone on what the combined total of the completed set is once I've finished. And just so everyone knows, this is a really hot product right now. My dealer told me that wholesale prices on boxes have gone up $17 since Wednesday. Get 'em quick!

"But there's just more of me to love!"

2008-02-28T01:17:00.003-05:00

Andruw Jones showed up to Dodgers' camp at 240 pounds. Did anyone tell him this was spring training camp and not fat camp? He says he's going to lose it as the season progresses. Somehow, I highly doubt that. Let's play Jeopardy! The answer is: This is the worst way you can spend $36.2 million over 2 years.

COTW for 2/24/08: Chipper Jones 2007 Bowman Chrome XFractor 209/250

2008-02-24T22:56:00.003-05:00

This is the first XFractor I have ever owned. I found it on eBay last week for $1.04. That's right: $1.04. I couldn't pass that up. I mean, a shiny reflective card of the best switch hitter in the history of baseball (yes, that's right...EVER. There'll be a post backing this up soon, hopefully.) So just look at the squares and ooh and ahh.

Spring Training: The Follow-Up

2008-02-24T02:07:00.002-05:00

I know you want more pics, so I'll just let you see all of them in their large glory. Go here to my Flickr account and you'll be able to see all of the ones that I took.

Braves Spring Training Report

2008-02-23T20:31:00.016-05:00

After leaving my house in Jacksonville at 6:30, I fought through Orlando morning traffic and made it inside the stadium around 9 AM. I had missed my early morning autograph opportunities but that's fine. The team seemed to not be out as early as they were last year. Everyone didn't come out until they were right about to start their stretches. You can't really tell a whole lot by just watching practice, but you can make some decent assumptions. Javy looks to be in great shape. He looks like he hasn't aged a day since he left. Glavine on the other hand, well, he's gotten grayer. As Tommy Two-Timer was walking from the batting cages to the field, autograph seekers yelled at him and he reponded that he was the first one up to throw BP and that since we were behind the field that "we should watch out for all the home runs". Well at least he knows he sucks in the first inning. I watched the catchers practice and Javy's defense has gotten much better. I'll be shocked if he doesn't make the team. He pretty much has to get hurt or just be horrible during the Spring games. Clint Sammons needs to put on some muscle as he was by far the smallest of the catchers. I then watched future stud Jordan Schafer take some BP. Let me tell you, this kid can rake. Jeff Bennett, Blaine Boyer and Matt DeSsalvo were throwing him BP and he was taking good cuts and driving the ball far. He is fairly skinny and needs to bulk up before he takes over center full time. I didn't get to see Kotsay so I don't know how he looked. Overall, I have a good feeling about this season. I was encouraged by what I saw and was glad I went. I do like to collect autographs, but I like balls much more than cards, so I try to take a few cards, but mostly balls. Last year I got Chipper and McCann on balls. I need Francoeur and Teixeira. They both signed a lot yesterday, but it was always somewhere where I wasn't or in the wrong place at the wrong time. They both blew off all of the auto seekers after practice waiting out by where the players have to exit saying they both had signed all day, which was true. Hopefully I can get them both at some point. However, this is what I did get:

Chuck James 2006 Bowman Heritage RC
I asked Chuck how he was doing and he said he'd been better because the night before, his car had gotten towed. From what I gathered, he either left his vehicle at the park or somewhere that had security. He asked the security people if it was ok to leave the vehicle there and they said it was. Well, it got towed and put on a trailer and he said he had to deal with that before practice, but that the arm is feeling better.

This would be my favorite item I got: Jordan Schafer signed ball
Jordan signed a ton of stuff and I was happy to get him right now. I think he'll be like Francoeur with his signing habits when he gets to the big league, which are good, but it's harder than some people.

Here are some pictures and I'll caption them when needed.

Apparently some local paper had Smoltz and Tom put on old Braves unis. The uniforms were too big for both of them and the hats were way too big. They must have spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to get the hats to work to fit on their heads.

Frank Fultz, the Master of Stretching

Corky Miller's face in this one is glorious.

Everyone else was following Fultz's stretching orders. Then there's these guys.

Brent Lillibridge looks like he's 12. I think the Braves might be breaking child labor laws.

Well, that's all I've got from Spring Training. If you can get to a ballpark down here in Florida in the next few weeks, I would highly recommend it.

Spring Training Tease

2008-02-22T23:57:00.003-05:00

I'm fairly tired from my expidition to Disney today, but I'll give you a tease right now and a full report tomorrow. Click to get the full effect.

COTW for 2/17/08: 1986 Fleer Limited Edition #39 Juan Samuel

2008-02-21T18:22:00.003-05:00

I'm not even going to write anything, I'm just going to post a video.