Anyone ever write a post before coming up with a title?

I'm definitely not in attack mode right now.  I tried to get interested in 2013 Bowman, but it just wasn't happening.  I don't have a great deal of money to go out and hunt for the key cards I need to complete my '64, '73 and '75 sets that I'm working on.

So, as you saw the other day, I bought a "best of 2012" repack box.  I promised to show the rest of the box in my next post, so here you go!

First, the Gypsy Queens:

Pack 1, outside of the Frank Robinson moonshots insert, nothing to see here.

The Albert Pujols mini is a straight cut back, and I like the Future Stars card of Starlin Castro (must be that it's blue...something about that color with me....not sure why....)

Again, not a whole lot to see here.  The Johnny Bench mini is also a straight cut back variation.  If you need any of them, don't be shy, let me know.

The Topps Archives release in the end turned out to be a product that didn't particularly excite me.  It makes me wonder if they are just testing future Heritage releases to see if they'll work (I'm sure they will).  I think part of my reason for the lack of interest in this set is that it's kind of small at only 200 cards +SPs. 

The Singleton in the middle is a SP, card #204.  There might be somebody out there still trying to get all the SPs.

Starlin Castro seems to be another name that I keep pulling, no matter what the brand.  The floating head Mickey Mantle is pretty cool, and up for trade if any Yankees fans are in need of it for their collections.

The 2012 Heritage set was something that I swore off, and amazingly for me, I did.  I don't recall for sure, but at most I think bought about 1 blaster, and maybe a handful of rack packs. 

 

The only thing that I found interesting in this pack was the arm patch on the Vlady Guerrero card.  I can honestly say I have never seen it before, and to me it looks like the Orioles trying to copy the Ravens logo. 

Hey kids, guess who that is in the center again?  Yep, Starlin Castro was in each of the products I showcased today.  I wonder if that is somebody somewhere trying to tell me something.  The Ricky Romero Chrome in the lower left goes into the Blue Jays collection, as the serial number is not one I needed for the Serial Insanity set.

Anyone ever write a post before coming up with a title?  I just did....

I promise it will get better....at least I hope it will...

Thanks for reading, Robert

Lightning never strikes twice in the same place

I'm back after a much needed couple of days away from the computer at home, and everything associated with it.  I was able to get some rest the last couple of nights, a necessity in order to recover from my 10 day vacation.

"Lightning never strikes twice in the same place" is probably a motto that I should remember when it comes to buying cards.  Especially the repack boxes.

I decided on my last day off, this past Monday, to buy another of the "Best of 2012" repacks at Wal Mart.  While the box wasn't a total bust, I didn't score anything as good as the numbered A&G mini that I pulled at the beginning of the year.

I figured I'll do a quick run down of the packs that were in there.  They consisted of 4 Bowman, 3 GQ, 2 Archives and 2 Heritage.  An interesting find among them were the sealed packs of 3 insert cards you would have found in rack packs of Bowman(purple borders) and GQ(brown framed).  While the Bowman cards were nobody that I recognize (yet), the 3 GQ cards were of Smoltz, Reyes and Utley.  Not bad there.

Let's have a little fun and do a pack by pack run down....been a while since I did a couple of these.

Starting off with 4 packs of Bowman...

Pack 1:

48.  Zach Greinke
161.  Jason Heyward
BCP107.  Joe Ross
BCP70.  Luis Heredia
63. Alex Rodriguez Gold Parallel (wonder if we'll see him doing anything like this in 2013)

38. Paul Konerko Bowman International Parallel

Would definitely not turn away any Blue Jay parallels in the Bowman International series.  I think the Konerko card looks pretty good.

BP23.  Jake Marisnick
BP110.  Daniel Norris (2nd rd pick for Toronto in 2011, not doing too well in the minors right now...)
89.  Brian Wilson...the beard
49.  Albert Pujols---has anyone heard from him this year?

Pack 2:

180.  Michael Young
148.  Rickie Weeks
69. Alexi Ogando
BP34.  Matthew Szczur (say and spell that last name 10 times fast)
BP51.  Brett Krill
118.  Alex Gordon gold parallel
BCP70.  Luis Heredia (yep, same card in the first two packs)
BCP55.  Jose Vinicio
175.  Starlin Castro  (currently holds longest NL active streak for games played)
160.  R.A. Dickey

Pack 3:

101.  Miguel Cabrera

Heaven help the Tigers if this guy gets hurt.  Seems to be trying to prove that last year's Triple Crown wasn't a fluke, leads the AL in batting average (.387) and RBI (52).  Oh, and he's one behind Chris Davis with 13 HR's. 

144.  Salvador Perez
216.  Brad Peacock
96.  Jose Reyes -- was liking the AL to the tune of a .395 average before he got hurt...
BP83.  Jacob Anderson (the packs have been good so far for Blue Jay prospects)
BP12.  Rafael Ortega
130.  Cory Luebke gold parallel.  He's in his camo uniform, gotta show it...

BCP79.  Josh Bell  Pirates 2nd rounder in 2011
BCP77.  Clay Holmes
215.  Joe Benson

Pack 4:

156.  Mark Trumbo  Angels are doing their best to fit him in anywhere in the lineup...10HR and .280 avg helps.
14.  Pablo Sandoval
BP24.  J.R. Graham  (went 12-2 in 2 stops in the Braves minor league system last year...)
BP43.  Rookie Davis 
BBP22.  Will Middlebrooks Bowmans Best parallel.

Middlebrooks seems to be the name I pull a lot so far this year.  I guess I could do worse??

177.  Ubaldo Jimenez gold parallel
BCP13.  Tyler Gagnon  (he's a winner...)
92.  Miguel Montero
107.  Ian Kennedy
204.  Jeff Locke

I will admit it.  Seeing him on the opening day roster for the Pirates this year surprised me.  Locke's time in the bigs in 2011 & 2012 was rocky to say the least.  His first start against the Dodgers he was knocked around the ball park a lot, and winced every time a Dodger hit the ball.  I was worried.  Boy has he turned it around.  4-1  2.73 ERA, and 1.158 WHIP numbers have proved my doubts to be incorrect.  Everyone was high on Charlie Morton in the big deal the Pirates made with the Braves for Nate McLouth.  Looks like Locke may turn out to be the better pitcher.  Time will tell...

Not a whole lot of difference between the 2012 Bowman and the 2013 sets.  Maybe that's why people are tired of it? 

I'll post the other packs tomorrow...not a great deal to speak of  but who knows, there may be something in them that somebody can use.  

Thanks for reading, Robert

BBB

I'm sure that at least one or two of you have seen those initials in the past.  In the past, I had several ways that I could interpret the acronym "BBB"

Better Business Bureau--probably the most commonly known usage of the 3 B's

Bed Bath and Beyond--not until I started working in the transportation industry was I aware that BBB could have stood for the housewares giant.  Every December, I end up seeing these initials in nightmares...nuff said.

There are others that involve portions of the female anatomy. I'll just let your imagination do the rest of the work.

During the last couple of weeks, BBB has kind of taken on a new meaning here for me.

Bored Bowman Buying.

Yep, I've been kind of bored, and when perusing the card aisle at Wal-Mart, I've ended up with packs/blasters of Bowman in my cart.  For some reason, they've piqued my curiosity this year more than in years past. 

I've noticed a couple of different things in the packs I've opened so far that I thought I would share.  First, I am certainly behind in the alternate jersey department, because I can't say that I've ever seen the Reds wear the uniforms shown on the Shin-Soo Choo card below...

Spring training duds? 

Another interesting aspect of the Bowman cards was something I didn't notice until P-Town Tom commented on the Yovani Gallardo post from last week.  In case you need a refresher, see here..  The logos for the current major league players all appear at the bottom of the picture (some of them in spots that are, well unflattering to say the least), while the prospects cards don't have the team logo at all.

I like how this Silver Ice card scanned

Licensing issue for prospects?  Seems weird, because team logos appear on the uniform that they wear, but not on the bottom of the card similar to the major league players.  Would love to know why that is...

Another thing I've noticed is that there hasn't been a whole lot written about the cards.  I've seen a smattering of posts here and there, but the malaise in general is interesting. 

I guess everyone is waiting for A&G?  Sure looks that way to me....

Thanks for reading, Robert

1977 Topps: My top 20 5 through 1

The final 5.  I'm sure that there are some people that have looked at #'s 20 through 6 and thought that I could have made better choices.

I like what I like.  Enjoy the top of the crop....

Card #5:  #277 N.L. Championship 

This is another card that I've featured on the blog in the past, and it's probably the second best "action" card in the set.  Pete Rose rounding 2nd heading for 3rd, passing Larry Bowa on the basepaths while Bake McBride throws the ball in from the outfield.

Like I said in the past, I still hear the train whistle when I see Rose running on this card.  Mike Schmidt better be ready....

Card #4:  #6 1976 Strikeout Leaders 

Probably the two greatest pitchers of my lifetime featured on the same card.  You bet this is going to be in the countdown.  All the strikeout pitchers seemed to be on the same team in both leagues...

The top 2 in the AL were Ryan and Frank Tanana, both on the Angels, while 3 of the top 8 strikeout pitchers in the NL were on the Mets (Seaver, Koosman, Matlack).

Card #3:  #295 Gary Carter 

Name me a guy who enjoyed baseball more than Gary Carter did during his time in MLB.  Tough to do, isn't it?  Love the catchers pose, with the bags of equipment lying on the grass behind him.  Just reminds you of little league, doesn't it?

It's a shame that we had to lose Gary so young.  It's also sad that he was appreciated more after he was gone. 

Card #2:  #500 Dave Kingman 

Another first overall pick, Kingman was taken by the Giants in the 1970 draft.  The very next season, Dave hit the first of his 442 career HRs , a grand slam off of Pittsburgh's Dave Giusti.  I can almost see him admiring the flight of the ball on this card, I'm sure that one of his 37 HRs from 1976 is pictured here.

You don't mess with "Kong", or at worst, you didn't throw him a pitch in the middle of the plate, unless you wanted it sent into orbit.

Card #1:   #640 Carlton Fisk 

Is it the fact that he's tagging out a Yankee (Willie Randolph) in the photo?  Yea, that's a big part of it.  But for a set that doesn't have a large amount of action photos, to have this card among them easily makes it the top of the list, at least in my view.

Of all the career stats that Fisk obtained, the 24 seasons, 376 HRs, 11 All Star Selections, Rookie of the Year, etc etc, I would like to meet the over 100 people that left him off of their Hall of Fame ballot. 

I hope that you enjoyed my top 20 countdown of what I thought to be the best '77 Topps cards. 

Go ahead, have your fun, ask me why I didn't include a particular card.   I'm sure I'll have a reason for you.

Thanks for reading, Robert

1977 Topps: My Top 20: 10 through 6

We hit the top 10 today, I hope you've enjoyed numbers 20 through 11 so far.

Three of today's 5 feature uniforms as part of the reason the cards are in the countdown.  Here we go:

Card #10:  #273 Eric Soderholm

Another card featuring the great uniforms the Sox had at that time.  I probably went overboard putting two of these in my top 20, but for some reason, these uniforms really work for me.  For those of you who didn't know, Soderholm was a first overall pick of the Twins in the '68 draft.  Eric hit his first major league homer just 3 years later off of Diego Segui.

After doing a little more research, it's interesting that Soderholm had a card in the '77 set, since he missed the entire '76 season with a knee injury.  Soderholm was AL comeback player of the year in '77 with 25 HRs and a .280 average.

Card #9:  #514 Cliff Johnson

I've had some fun with Cliff Johnson on the blog in the past.  This card sums up several of his different issues, Cliff looking at the catcher, and almost daring the umpire to call a strike.  The rainbow Astros uniforms were great back then, and would be something I would welcome back on a regular basis.

Would you want to call a strike on this man?

Card #8:  #550 Randy Jones

Combine the classic mustard and brown uniform, with one of the greatest hair styles on a ball player back then, and you have a great card.  Jones had just come off a 22 win season the year before and earned the Cy Young award.  Imagine a pitcher completing 25 games this year.  Can't do it, can you?  Randy did that in '76 and pitched 315.1 innings. 

Those days are gone for sure.

Card #7:  #600 Jim Palmer

When they coined the term "in the stretch position", I'm sure that Jim Palmer was the one they had in mind.  I didn't do this on purpose, but Jim's '76 campaign almost mirrors Randy Jones.  22 wins with 315 innings pitched earned him the AL Cy Young award.

The reddish orange jerseys didn't hurt this card either.  Where have all these great styles gone?

Card #6:  #347 George Foster

 

Even better than the look on Cliff Johnson's face a few cards back is the menacing stare of George Foster on this beauty.  '77 would be George's career season, hitting 52 HRs while knocking in 149.  George also led the National League in runs scored with 124 and OPS with 1.013.

I'm guessing that this photo was taken in spring training, because I don't remember old Riverfront Stadium being natural grass.

Tomorrow, the final 5.  Hope you're there...

Thanks for reading, Robert